Part 5 (2/2)

The Geranization following the conquest of German South-West Africa by the South African Arlo-Saxon The Anglo-American Corporation which has extensive interests in South Africa and which is financed by London and New York capitalists, the latter including J P Morgan, Charles H Sabin and W

B Tho commentary on post-war business readjustment to discover that there is still a German interest in these mines It makes one wonder if the German will ever be eradicated from his world-wide contact with every point of co, therefore, that South Africa, in the light of all the facts that I have enumerated, should be prosperous Take the money, always a test of national econon that I had seen since early in 1914 This was not only because the Union happens to be a great gold-producing country but because she has an excess of exports over imports Her money, despite its intimate relation with that of Great Britain, which has so sadly depreciated, is at a preot expensive evidence of this when I went to the bank at Capetown to get solish pounds To s and sixpence in African lish pound, which is nos Six months after I left, this penalty had increased to three shi+llings To such an extent has the proud English pound sterling declined and in a British doo on the export of sovereigns One reason was that during the first three years of the war a steady streaolden coins went surreptitiously to East India, where an unusually high preoldsgling has resulted In order to put a check on illicit re the Union are searched before they board their shi+ps Nor is it a half-hearted procedure It is as drastic as the war-time scrutiny on frontiers

To sum up the whole business situation in the Union of South Africa is to find that the spirit of production,--thein the world today--is that of persistent advance I dwell on this because it is in such sharp contrast hat is going on throughout the rest of a universe that staggers under sloth, and where the will-to-work has almost become a lost art That older and more complacent order which is represented for exaland may well seek inspiration from this South African beehive

III

With this econo for the whole South African picture and a visualization of the Cape-to-Cairo Route let us start on the long journey that eventually took me to the heart of equatorial Africa The immediate objectives, so far as this chapter is concerned, are Ki and Pretoria, na chapters in the development of Africa and more especially the Union

You depart fro and for hours you remain in the friendly company of thethe whole stay at the capital and you regretfully watch this ”Gray Father” fade away in the distance In the evening you pass through the Hex River country where the canyon is reminiscent of Colorado Soon there bursts upon you the famous Karoo country, so familiar to all readers of South African novels and more especially those of Olive Schreiner, Richard Dehan and Sir Percy Fitz Patrick It is an almost treeless plain dotted here and there with Boer hoests battle with element and soil The country immediately around Capetown is a paradise of fruit and flowers, but as you travel northward the whole character changes There is less green and more brown After the Karoo comes the equally famous veldt, studded with the _kopjes_ that became a part of the world vocabulary with the Boer War Behind these low, long hills,--they suggest flat, rocky huhers lish

[Illustration: _Photograph Copyright by W & D Downey_

CECIL RHODES]

When you see the _kopjes_ you can readily understand why it took so long to conquer the Boers The Dutch knew every inch of the land and every man was a crack shot from boyhood In these hills a handful could hold a sion you encounter places that have become part of history You pass the ruins of Kitchener's blockhouses,--they really ended the Boer War--and almost before you realize it, you cross the Modder River, where British ot a bloody repulse Instinctively there coles of Cronje, DeWet, Joubert, and the rest of those Boer leaders who ion a small Valhalla

Late in the afternoon of the second day you suddenly get a ”feel” of industry The veldt becoainst the sky You are at Kie e in the Boer War and the equally famous diamond mines But it is much more for it is packed with romance and reality Here caest business deal of his life; here you find the first ineer set up in the reater quantities than in any other place in the world the glittering jewel that vanity and avarice set their heart upon

Kimberley is one of the most unique of all the treasure cities It is practically built on a diaold excavation When the great diae River regions, what is now the Kimberley section was a rocky plain with a few Boer farms The influx of fortune-hunters dotted the area with tents and diggings Today a thriving city covers it and the wealth produced--the diamond output is ninety per cent of the world supply--exceeds in value that of a bigcommunity in the United States

At Kimberley you touch the intimate life of Rhodes He arrived in 1872 froone to retrieve his health on a faran a remarkable career In his early Ki He left his clairee in 1881, after alland and Africa Hence the Rhodes Scholarshi+p at Oxford created by his re contrast perhaps than the spectacle of this tall curly-haired boy with the Caesar-like face studying a Greek book while hemachine with his foot

Rhodes developed the reat rival was Barney Barnato, who gave African finance the sah ht to American finance His real na about the streets of the East End of London he became a music hall performer under the name by which he is known to business history The diamond rush lured hienuity that led to his organization of the Central rouped around the Kimberley Mine

A bitter coroups

Kienius of dia output to demand Rhodes realized that indiscriminate production would ruin the market, so he framed up the deal that made him the diamond dictator He made Barnato an offer which was refused With the aid of the Rothschilds in London Rhodes secretly bought out the French interests in the Barnato holdings for 6,000,000, which got his foot, so to speak, in the doorway of the opposition But even this did not give hi stockholders and required some weeks time to consummate the deal

Meanwhile Barnato accumulated an immense stock of diamonds which he threatened to dump on the market and demoralize the price The release of these stones before the cootiations would have upset his whole scheed awith Barnato who confronted him with the pile of diamonds that he was about to throw on the oes, took him by the arm and said: ”Barney, have you ever seen a bucketful of diamonds? I never have I'll make a proposition to you If these diamonds will fill a bucket, I'll take the his rival ti fortune into a bucket which happened to be standing nearby It also happened that the stones did not fill it This incident shows the extent of the Rhodes resource, for a man at Kimberly told me that Rhodes knew beforehand exactly how ht sized bucket Rhodes iot the time he wanted and consummated the consolidation which made the name DeBeers synony feature of this deal was the check for 26,000,000 which Rhodes gave for some of the Barnato interests acquired

The deal with Barnato illustrated the practical operation of one of the rules which guided Rhodes' business life He once said, ”Never fight with a man if you can deal with hie Matabeles froanization of the diaave another evidence of his business acu of the output would lead to instability of price He therefore forroup of middlemen who distribute the whole Kimberley output In this way the available supply is measured solely by the demand

Rhodes had a peculiar affection for Kimberley One reason perhaps was that it represented the cornerstone of his fortune He always referred to the mines as his ”bread and cheese” He made and lost vast sums elsewhere and scattered his money about with a lavish hand The diaave him a constant meal-ticket

In Kimberley he made some of the friendshi+ps that influenced his life

First and fore them was his association with Doctor, afterwards Sir, Starr Jameson, the hero of the famous Raid and a romantic character in African annals Jameson came to Kimberley to practiceattachment for Alfred Beit, who arrived at the dia in 1875 as an obscure buyer He becanate whose operations extended to three continents Beit was the balance wheel in the Rhodes financial machine

The diamond mines at Kimberley are familiar to most readers They differ froo in that they are deep level excavations The Kioes down 3,000 feet To see this alet the impression of a very small Grand Canyon of the Colorado It is an awesoreen and brown and purple, is es to a visible point a thousand feet below You feel that out of this color and depth has e that itself incarnates lure and mystery Even in its source the diamond is not without its element of elusiveness

The diamonds at Kimberley are found in a blue earth, technically known as kiround” This is exposed to sun and rain for six rease table where the vaseline catches the real dia process it is the ”rough”