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300
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SIR ERNEST OPPENHEIMER
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Mines
of South West Africa, under the 1931-2 contracts (which had obviously
been rendered abortive by the simple march of world events) during the
course of which legal action was threatened by the Administrator
against the Diamond Corporation for breach of conÂtract. This matter
was compromised by the Administrator withdrawing his insistence on an
actual delivery to the corporation of the diamonds in question, subject
to the payment of the export tax due had the diamonds been actually
physically handed over. But later in the year, when the negotiations
with the Union Government appeared to be on the verge of fruition, a
much more serious problem arose when the whole basis of the proposed
agreement was challenged by, and on behalf of, the South West Africa
Administration. There were, no doubt, technical issues which required
careful examination in the light of the financial necessities of the
South West Africa Administration, which was much more dependent on the
diamond production of South West Africa for meeting its current
expenditure than was the Union Government on the Union production.
Nevertheless, the whole situation was coloured by the personal
prejudices of Mr. Ross Frames and by his hostility towards the head of
the diamond industry. Ross Frames had become, by the time of these
events, chairman of the Diamond Board for South West Africa and was
therefore in a position of great importance in South West African
diamond affairs. On 19 June 1933, Ernest Oppenheimer wrote officially
to the Minister of Mines:
It
appears that Mr. Frames has sent to the Administrator a memorandum,
dated 15 June, on the diamond conference recently held in Cape Town. A
copy of this memorandum was handed to the Diamond Board for South West
Africa for inclusion in its records, and thus is available to the
ConÂsolidated company and the board of that company. In case you have
not seen a copy, I enclose one. When you have read it I think you will
agree that the doubts which were expressed regarding the advisability
of Mr. Frames attending the conference as the representative of His
Honour the Administrator are shown to have been amply justified.
I do not propose to refer in detail to his remarks and insinuations reflecting upon the bona fides of
various parties and individuals in their attempt to put the diamond
industry on a more stable footing, and I shall content myself with the
suggestion that quite clearly those statements are deliberately
designed to create in the mind of the Administrator distrust and a
feeling inimical to the proposed scheme, and this, I would emphasize,
without any attempt being made to examine the essential features of the
scheme or to state the benefits which it is claimed will accrue to the
industry as a result of
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