had gone on for three months, and already they were demanding more than the advantage they gained through that maneuver.
"We
get too much competition from people who don't care how long they
work," said Mr. Goldmuntz. "Israel, for instance; we have asked them
to cut down their working day to match ours, but they won't. They want
to compete." He looked aghast at such lack of sportsmanship, and added
dolefully, "And I helped set up the Israeli industry." For my part, for
purely selfish reasons I was disappointed to find Belgian cutters so
well off. I had understood that the cutting of really small stones, the
kind we call "chips," is such fiddling work and pays so badly that
nobody in England has the time or patience to take it on, whereas in
Belgium there was a whole class of people who cut these tiny things at
home. I found that I was mistaken. While such work is done in a lot of
houses in Holland, in Belgium it isn't common. The nearest I came to
finding a cottage industry was later, when I peeped through a window at
a man who was obviously in his own home, wearing the familiar apron and
operating a polishing disk.
A
dealer expatiated on the hardships of the bosses. "People won't believe
we aren't all millionaires, because we deal in parcels that run into
large figures. It's true, I sometimes handle deals of seventy or eighty
thousand pounds at a time, but then I've had to buy the goods before I
can sell it. My own profit isn't anything like what they think it is.
And then it's possible to drop a lot of money because of a sudden
change in world affairs. You understand, you don't sell the same kind
of goods all over the world. For instance, I had a large stock of
yellow diamonds ready for the Far East. Some oriental women don't
