THE NORTHWARD EXPANSION 397
of two groups in Northern Rhodesia a disadvantage—a fact of which Ernest Oppenheimer was very well aware.
♦ V ♦
Though
Anglo American Corporation's 'original incursion into Northern
Rhodesia', to recall Ernest Oppenheimer's words already quoted, may
have been due to his contacts with Edmund Davis, it would be more
accurate to say that it was the corporation's first effective incursion;
in fact, whether because of the intervention of Edmund Davis with
Ernest Oppenheimer, or because of the latter's ambition to widen the
sphere of Anglo American Corporation interests, Leslie Pollak, his
brother-in-law, and Anglo American Corporation's then consulting
engineer, Mr. Carl R. Davis, himself an American mining engineer of
large experience, were in the Copperbelt area in October 1923. On 16
November 1923, Ernest Oppenheimer reported to the board of Anglo
American Corporation that
.
. . the corporation's consulting engineer and Mr. L. A. Pollak were at
present in Rhodesia, with a view to ascertaining if there were any
properties in the market worth considering. The policy of the
corporation would be to proceed very cautiously and the main object of
the present visit was to keep in touch with general developments in
Rhodesia.
On
18 January 1924 Leslie Pollak gave the Anglo American Corporation
board 'a short resume of negotiations in connexion with various
properties, and stated that the only property in which the corporation
was interested at present was the 'What Cheer' situated in the
Umswe-swe district'. (This was in Southern Rhodesia and clearly refers
to a local mine.)
But,
soon thereafter, matters began to move: Edmund Davis was pressing,
through an old friend, J. S. Wetzlar, himself long associated with the
Anglo American Corporation group, for a decision, and on 14 February
1924 Anglo American Corporation in London was advising Johannesburg of
the purchase of 100,000 Bwana M'Kubwa shares. This was the 'original
incursion into Northern Rhodesia'. It was followed by Ernest
Oppenheimer's appointment to the board of the Bwana M'Kubwa company,
his alternate on the board being J. S. Wetzlar. This first step was
taken, it may be noted, before a stream of reports were made by Carl
Davis, the consulting engineer to Anglo
