Secondly,
the proposed division of the trade into gem stones and industrials
involved the creation of two new organizations. These were, according
to the memorandum, to be—
The Industrial Diamond Corporation. This
company will be formed by the Diamond Corporation and will take over
the Diamond Corporation's stock of industrial diamonds. The formation
of this company means simply that the present Diamond Corporation will
be split in two and no new money will be put up. The new company will .
. . take over the Diamond Corporation's functions in respect to
industrial diamonds. The Industrial Diamond Corporation will not be a
member of the Diamond Producers' Association.
The Industrial Diamond Trading Company. This
company will carry out the final marketing of industrials. It is
considered that for this purpose a capital of .£1,000,000 will be
required, and arrangements will be made to find this money.
Both Industrial Diamond Corporation and Industrial Trading Company will be South African companies. They will jointly undertake a considerable programme of research into the properties and uses of industrial diamonds and will carry on the industrial business without preconceptions derived from experiences of the gem trade.
♦ XX ♦
In
September 1945 a serious situation arose. On 3 September Ernest
Oppenheimer had had an interview with the Minister of Mines. The points
at issue were set forth in a letter written by him on the subsequent
day. He had agreed to drop the proposal for a separate 'Industrial
Diamond Corporation' but had done so under the impression that the
Minister had taken the view that, from the standpoint of the contracts
entered into with the South African producers, hostilities had ceased;
the Minister took a different view. Ernest Oppenheimer was, therefore,
in a situation of great delicacy, for
the
outside producers have adopted the popular, and, to my mind, more
realistic view that hostilities are now at an end, and the outside
contracts must, therefore, be renewed (or abandoned) in the very near
future, quite irrespective of the declaration that you will make in
terms of the South African contracts regarding the date on which
hostilities are deemed by you to have terminated.
He
had no intention, he continued, 'of allowing the outside contracts to
lapse without making every effort to renew them'. If, therefore, the
Flickr
Stumbleupon
Scribd
