♦ XVIII ♦
At
last, on 7 March 1934, the Mines Department was in a position to cable
to the Diamond Corporation that 'association agreement signed behalf
Government and by Administrator today. Administrator also signed South
West special agreement today.' An additional cause of delay had arisen
because the producers had doubts on the subject of the Union
Government's choice of the chairman, but at long last the Diamond
Producers' Association had come into legal existence, together with the
Diamond Trading Company, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Diamond
Corporation. A framework had been created for the diamond industry
which, subject to inevitable modifications of detail, has now stood
the test of time for a quarter of a century.
The
essential feature of the scheme was to push the principles of control
of production and sales through a single channel to their logical
conclusion. The Diamond Producers' Association was representative of
all the large South African diamond interests—the old 'conference'
producers, the Union Government, the Consolidated Diamond Mines, the
Cape Coast and Koffiefontein mines and the Diamond Corporation, the
last-named both as regards its stock and contracts with outside
producers. The outside producers were outside the direct influence of
the South African Government; the Diamond Corporation accepted the
principle that on the expiration of the then running contracts 'they
shall not be extended nor shall fresh contracts
