Concessions
Ltd., the two largest producers, were linked to the Diamond Corporation
by sales contracts, 'diggers diamonds' were, prior to 1954, forwarded
through the two leading banks in West Africa, to the Crown Agents for
the Colonies in London. They were assorted and valued by Mr. A. E.
White, and subsequently sold by tender. In 1954, however, the local
Government set up the Government Diamond Market in Accra, and since 1
January 1961 all diamonds (including the production of Consolidated
African Selection Trust) produced in Ghana must be put out for tender
to the licensed buyers on the Accra diamond market—the number of such
buyers having been increased from three to eight. Various statements
have been made by Ghanaian Ministers to the effect that they would
shortly like to establish a single marketing agency for all
Ghana-produced diamonds on the lines of the (monopolistic) Cocoa
Marketing Board. This would mean the elimination of the various buyers
on the market at present.
West
Africa was, and remains, the most serious threat to the unity and
stability of the market, since West African production is large; but
there are other areas outside the sphere of control, the most important
of these being Brazil.
From
a very early stage in post-war history, Ernest Oppenheimer became
apprehensive. The De Beers minutes for 20 June 1946 record the
following expression of views on his part:
The
chairman reported diat Mr. Oppenheimer, while in London, had had
further conversations with Sir Gerard Clauson [on the granting of a
sole prospecting licence covering Tanganyika to this company], the gist
of which he would report on his return during the course of the next
few days. Continuing, the chairman said he felt sure that a
satisfactory outcome would result, but said that the position would not
be secure until they were able to come to terms with Williamson. He
mentioned that the Tanganyika production was now approximately one and
a half million pounds per annum, while that from French Equatorial
Africa was somewhere in the region of -£600,000 per annum. In addition
to this, there were the Belgian fields, and, with these sources of
independent production, he very much doubted whether, at the moment, we
had 65 per cent effective control of world production. This was not
serious with the existing demand for diamonds, but, in the event of a
recession in the market, it might become embarrassing. As far as Brazil
was concerned there was nothing much that could be done, but he
considered that their efforts should be energetically directed towards
obtaining effective control of all African production.
It
will have been apparent that it had always been Ernest Oppenheimer's
policy to associate the renewal of the outside agreements with the
