Summary
The principle, set by Frederick Mathias and insisted on by the British in spring 1940, that Palestine’s diamond industry be developed only within strict limits so as not to threaten Belgium’s postwar recuperation, De Beers’s marketing control, or the employment of European diamond workers (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.33, p.52-55).
Details
- Mathias’s 27 March 1940 report held a prosperous secondary industry could be developed in Palestine only if “there should be a very strict limit to its immediate extension” (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.33).
- The limits were to be applied by restricting the number of workers employed and allowed to migrate, limiting the supply of rough material, and not allowing Palestine to specialize exclusively in small stones (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.54-55).
- Mathias linked the limit to fears of smuggling to Germany, of sweated or cheap Arab labor undercutting Belgian wages, and of antagonizing the Belgian government and the Belgian Congo producers (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.53-54).
- Oved Ben-Ami reluctantly accepted the limitation as the central principle in return for a monopoly over Palestine diamond manufacturing (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.55).
- After the German occupation of Belgium, the principle became Mathias’s “temporary alternative,” purporting to secure Belgium’s recovery after the war, while Palestine was placed under much stricter control than diamond cutting in England itself (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.66).
- COFDI lobbied persistently in London against enlarging rough-diamond supplies to Palestine and New York to safeguard Belgian postwar interests (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.80).
- Fletcher ordered the Palestine Diamond Manufacturers’ Association in June 1941 that “the industry shall be strictly controlled, not only in respect of supplies of raw material, but also in the disposal of finished products” (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.80).
- In September 1941 the PDMA’s screening of new candidates stopped completely, a halt lasting until winter 1942 that reflected signals from Jerusalem and London that the industry was pushing its accepted limits of expansion (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.81).