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THE WAR YEARS AND AFTER
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In fact, in the end, the C.A.S.T. contracts were renewed. On 16 April 1942 Ernest Oppenheimer was writing:
We
have come to terms with the Selection people; it is a bit complicated
because Otto's purchase has to be deducted from our purchase. To make a
long story short (taking into account the amount Otto purchased) Sierra
Leone gets a flat 12 per cent (instead of 9—10—11 per cent as at
present) with no minimum. The deliveries will be approximately
half cuttable and half industrials. This is a useful concession. We
have also arranged fixed prices for bort and allied qualities,
on the lines of my new arrangements with the Congo companies. If Otto
had been more circumspect we might have done better; for all that it is
just as well to keep the trade together especially in view of my
negotiations with Stallard.12
♦ VI ♦
The
imminence of these and other problems led Ernest Oppenheimer to
'philosophize a bit about diamonds generally, not only to clarify my
ideas but to place certain experiences on record'. (Ernest Oppenheimer
to Harry Oppenheimer, 21 January 1942.)
The first conclusion to which current events were forcing him was that (letter of the same date):
Our
aim must be to retrace one of the worst steps that has ever been taken
in the diamond trade, namely the mixing of all production. All diamonds
are diamonds and therefore mix them all and sell diamonds. Frames—who
knew nothing about diamonds—discovered this false doctrine and forced
it on the Syndicate. Every production has its own individuality and no
mixing will destroy it. It is the mixing of all sorts of diamonds that
has brought our extraordinary assortment. Mixing all diamonds does not
lead to bigger trade. On the contrary by selling Wesselton,
Bultfontein, Dutoitspan, etc., etc., separately one can always supply
the particular class of production most in demand. In the olden days De
Beers had a fairly large stock and we could say: Bultfontein is more in
demand, give us chiefly B, and then again as fashions will change we
asked for Dutoitspan and so on. The assortment has not only become
ridiculous by mixing diamonds but the work is much increased.
These
statements are never 100 per cent true. Take Dutoitspan: there are not
enough cleavages nor macles to make it worth while to make up made and
cleavage series. It was always found that macles from all sources mixed
very easily and the same applied to cleavages, but stones never mixed
satisfactorily and, after all, that is the bulk of the assortment in
value. Assume
12 Col. C. F. Stallard, then Minister of Mines.
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