DIAMOND SMUGGLING IN EAST AFRICA: BRITAIN’S BIG LOSSES

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 March 1948, Page 5

DIAMOND SMUGGLING IN EAST AFRICA: BRITAIN’S BIG LOSSES

LONDON, March 15. “Britain is losing millions of dollars in exports through diamond thefts ' in Tanganyika,” reports the Daily Mail. “Police inquiries are being made in London and Amsterdam, with the object of intercepting diamonds smuggled .out of East Africa. • Some are industrial diamonds invaluable to Britain’s production drive, and others are jeweller’s pieces of enormous value. “Investigations show that fortunes are being made by certain European and Indian operators. New industries are being launched in India on the proceeds of diamond smuggling; Some European ‘refugees’ to East Africa have made sufficient out of the racket to give exorbitant prices for land which British firms cannot possibly pay. . “The thefts are draining Britain s greatest dollar-earning industry in East Africa. It is estimated that the country’s ‘Diamond King,’ Dr J. T. Williamson, is losing 30 per cent, of the production of a mine which he started in Shinyanga. This mine has been in continuous production since 1941, and promises to be one of the richest in the world. “African workers swallow diamonds, and sell them to agents, who them out of Tanganyika to the world’s markets. European staffs at the workings are so small that it is almost impossible to make a proper search of the workers. The police in Tanganyika admit that there. is little they can do to prevent what is going on. They have neither the men nor the material to do so.” „