time
the legal system worked well, and the S.L.S.T. profited. Europeans
taught the brighter boys how to manage the rest of the work gangs, and
appointed these leaders to be foremen, and paid them higher wages. The
few natives who did make off with diamonds had to run the risk of the
occasional company guard—but there were not many guards, it being
difficult to know just where to station them—and then discover some way
to sell their hot goods. Before the war this wasn't so easy.
It
was not until after the end of the war, in 1945, that the situation
changed, both as to diamonds and Britain's political attitude toward
colonies. It was now understood that Sierra Leone was on the way to independence,
and the Colonial Office began training Africans to hold posts in the
government. At the same time, diamonds suddenly became more valuable on
the black market. The Iron Curtain countries desperately needed
industrials, and as relations worsened between Russia with her
satellites and the West, industrials were placed on the "forbidden"
list: not for export. Among the sparse foreign population were a
number of Lebanese, known locally as "Syrians," who provided outlets
for illicit stones by buying them and then reselling at a handsome
profit to messengers from the Iron Curtain countries. Then at last it
dawned on the ordinary Sierra Leone native that for a small
outlay—enough for a pick, a shovel, and a sieve—a man could go into
business for himself and make a nice living with a minimum of effort.
The idea caught on.
People
were not impressed when S.L.S.T. officials lectured them about
dishonesty. Just over the border, on the Gold Coast, Africans were free
to dig for diamonds; all they had to do was buy a license and
thereafter they could sell their diamonds
