STATE DIAMONDS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16838, 29 December 1928, Page 15

STATE DIAMONDS

ROMANCE OF NEW FIELD SOUTH AFRICA'S GREAT HAUL £4,000,000 GEMS A MONTH HOARDED IN SECRET VAULTS OAI'KTUWX, Nov. 18. Two or three tunes n week an aeroplane glides to earth at the military aerodrome in Capetown. As soon as the engines are stilled the pilot takes a Mack box from the fuselage and kinds rt over to an armed guard. In thai little box are diamonds worth nearly £2&),000. They have been brought by the military aeroplane from the richest and most secret, diamond held in the world, lictween £3,000,000 and £4,CCO,COO worth of diamonds are being found on tins field each month and carefully hoarded away in secret vaults in Capotown. If this wealth of stones were suddenly 'lung on. to the market in Halt on Garden and New V'ork, diamonds would neeome as cheap as artificial pearls. Vet the world outside the big diamond syndicates knows nothing of this greatest diamond discovery of the age. Ii exists in a lonely sandy waste known as Alexander Bay, lying on the south-west toast, of Africa just below the month of the Orange River, The district is called N'amaqualand, an area of suit pans and sand dunes where droughts occur with terrible regularity and the lew white farmers live a precarious existence. CROWN LAND A few months ago a Dr. Marensky, prospecting in this sandy wilderness, stumbled upon diamonds lying on the surface of the ground. Where the wind bad swept away the sand, diamonds could be sijcn. But the land was Crown land and Dr. Marensky bad to report his discovery. The South African Government quiet lv investigated the find and soon real i'sed that. Alexander Bay was the richest 'diamond field in the world. They quickly ponded out. that the area was Crown' land, permitted Dr. Marensky and the svndicate who were financing him to fake 100 claims, and thereupon prohibited any further prospecting in (lie district. And then, with a few white workers, they proceed to unearth a wealth and quality of diamonds such as the world has never known before. ORDERS TO SHOOT. No journalist or outsider is permitted to go" near the fields, no photographs are, allowed to be taken, and the area is policed by picked men who have orders to shoot any intruders. It was in March this year tjiat- the mystery diamond field was publicly revealed by an accident m tile House of Assembly in Capetown. The. members were engaged in the dull business of passing the annual vote for the Department of Mines and Industries when one member called attention to the fact that an additional amount of £2500 was required under the sub-head of "District Aiming Development." "Will you give us some information about that?" General Smuts asked the Minister of Mines, Mr. Beyert Mr. Beyers was obviously disconcerted. He ' became non-committal. He talked vaguely of the need, for building a road or two in the neighborhood of some diggings in which the Government wore interested.

General Smuts was not satisfied. He cross-examined the Minister of Mines and eventually dragged some details of this astonishing diamond adventure into the light of day. The original discoverer of these diamond fields was, it was admitted, a Dr. Marensky, a European geologist, who has beeii prospecting in South Africa for a year or so.' Diamonds aggregating 12,500 carats, worth about £150,000, were found by him in a, few weeks. On Urn farm Kleinsee. which was worked bv a, Kimberly svndicate, diamonds worth more than £200,000 were taken from one pot-hole within a month. The Minister of Mines became unusually eloquent. He described Alexander Bay as "something unparalleled in the. history of the country," and he added: _"lf"we start with 60 people the great thing wo will have to guard against, perhaps, is finding too many diamonds. If you walk about there on a windy day you can pick out stones on the surface. J picked up diamonds myself the value of £6OO in less than an hour." Following upon this statement the big international diamond syndicate whose wealth is sunk in Kimberley set to work to investigate, the new discovery. Their millions were in jeopardy. Sir David Harris, the diamond magnate, was able |,o state from, his own knowledge that Alexander Bay was the richest diamond field ever discovered in South Africa or any other country. Within a few days of "this announcement came news of a big find in the vicinity flf Namaqualand where, after a few weeks' prospecting, a. parcel of diamonds valued at £otO,CCO bad been discovered. RICHER THAN KIMBERLEY.

The Government set to work on the new fields with a stall' of 60 or 70 poor whites as workers. Not only was it discovered that the fields were richer Uii»n those at Kimberlcy but the quality and size of the stones were infinitely superior to those discovered in . any other port of the world. Moreover, it soon became apparent that the State diggings were even richer than those claimed by Dr. Marensky and his syndicate. . Owing i' l the inaccessible nature of the wilderness surrounding Alexander I'.av military aeroplanes ' were called into use to transport the diamonds to Capetown. One (lav one of the aeroplanes had to descend owing to engine trouble on farm lands near the Cape. The farmer hurried out out of his house to give assistance to the two airmen, but to Ins astonishment Found a iServ.ce revolver levelled at him and a harsh voice order- ,-„„• him to return to his house. Later the engine trouble was righted and the diamond-freighted aeroplane resumed its Hight to Capetown. Naturally, as soon as details o! the new finds' leaked 'out prospectors and diggers from all over South Africa wanted to rush the Namaqnaland diggings, but the Government refused to allow tins. They erected a gigantic fence round the State diggings and a permanent police force- was posted at Dunvlei which is three miles from the

At '"present only £6OOO worth of Namaqnaland diamonds is permitted lo lie placed on the market each month. The Government is avoiding the temptation to overfeed the market, although the demand for diamonds has recently improved. Yet at the moment over £B 000.000 worth of diamonds from Namaqnaland are hidden away ill the vaults of Capetown. .____