of West African production and not taking sufficient account of the significance of the Congo. The Congo position he took very seriously.
After setting out the facts as to the division of output by the B.C.K.
company, he posed the question, 'Who is to compete with this? . . .
Crushing bort is treated as a by-product by the Congo company. Who can
compete with such a concern?' He added, 'There can be only one policy
for De Beers; never mind about Angola or Sierra Leone or C.A.S.T., but
make sure of this Congo production even if the Forminiere diamonds
have to be bought in addition. The B.C.K. and Forminiere will dictate
the post-war policy of the diamond trade. By controlling the Congo
production De Beers will maintain its leading position in diamonds and
diamond control acts will hold no terrors. ..' (to Harry Oppenheimer,
21 June 1942).
The
second matter which he was turning over in his mind was the content of
future contracts with the 'outside' producers and the nature of the
relationship which should obtain between the Diamond Corporation
(which was the link between the South African producers and the outside
producers, through common membership of the Diamond Producers'
Association) and the South African producers. These were issues which
were clearly associated with each other; the second point was closely
related to the negotiations then going on with the Union Government and
with the proposals he had in mind generally for dealing with the
attitude taken up by it and its spokesmen.
As regards the outside contracts:
Our
aim should be to have flat percentages with a minimum [guaranteed
offtake]: this in fact is the great inducement (I speak of the minimum)
for the outside people to enter into contracts with us at moderate
prices. The minimum does give the higher percentages (in the smaller
volumes of trade) which they want and it should not be difficult to
convince them of this. During wartime the minimum means nothing,
because we have a war clause enabling us to cancel contracts at any
time. On the other hand, in peacetime it is a real obligation and
therefore we should provide that we can abandon any contract by paying
a penalty, somewhat on the lines of the existing Forminiere and B.C.K.
contracts.13
As
far as the relations between the outside producers, the Diamond
Corporation and the South African producers were concerned, he thought
that as the 'Government . . . dislike the idea that Dicorp makes
profits (in diamonds) on these outside purchases' this could be
13 He added: 'There endeth my lesson. If it does not do anything else it will have taken your mind off war for a few minutes.'
