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WORLD CRISIS AND WORLD LEADERSHIP
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from considerable financial difficulties, 'should refuse to sell outside diamonds and force [sic] its
customers to buy conference producers' goods instead'. To do him
justice, it was the Minister of Mines himself who saw the absurdity of
this idea: 'this would not decrease the amount of diamonds sold by the
outside producers and ... the Diamond Corporation clearly could not
afford to buy these diamonds and not to resell.' Ernest Oppenheimer was
asked whether the ideal solution would not be for the producers
themselves to buy the outside production: this naturally, he explained,
was impossible, in the light of financial circumstances, for the time
being, but he had his own ideas as to the future: ultimately, he hoped
that
all the large Union producers and South West Africa would be
amalgamated into one huge concern and that arrangements would be made
for one company to work the whole of Namaqualand and that this company
also would form a part of the combine. This seemed to him the logical
end of the efforts made to secure complete control in the diamond
industry, and it was his opinion that such a combination would be in a
position to negotiate for the purchase of the output of the foreign
producers.
Such
a combine would have represented a complete sellers' monopoly, so far
as South Africa was concerned, but there were, of course, also the
outside producers: it is worth notice that almost contemporaneously
Dutch circles were advocating the idea of a complete buyers' monopoly
in order to combat depression in the cutting industry.24 As
one step towards the more complete integration of the industry, Ernest
Oppenheimer advocated the closing down, for the time being at least,
of the Namaqualand State diggings, and the transfer of the quota to the
older producers.
As
a principal architect of the agreements with the outside producers, he
naturally did his best to defend the outside producers against attack,
but he was quite conscious of the dangers of the situation. Almost
immediately after the cessation of these negotiations and before
leaving for Europe, he was cabling to the Diamond Corporation in London:
continued
huge preponderance outside goods over conference goods creates worst
possible impression on Government and although producers realize that
under new offer they do not suffer in replacement they must view
continued unsaleability [of] their diamonds with great alarm as to
future [of] their properties. Please do your best stimulate sales
producers goods and cable me your views Kimberley. . . .
24 Vide Heertje. De Diamantbewerkers van Amsterdam (Amsterdam, 1936), p. 203 et seq. The
moving spirit behind this project was Henri Polak, the celebrated trade
union leader, for whom Ernest Oppenheimer, it may be added, had the
utmost respect.
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