Summary
Frederick Albert Mathias (1891-1981), a De Beers-linked British economic warfare official whose March 1940 report and proposal set the “logic of limited expansion” for Palestine’s diamond industry (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.33, p.51-53).
Details
- Born in 1891 in Australia, with a long history in De Beers subsidiary companies and British colonial service; from 1934 government director of the Sierra Leone Selection Trust, with his own company Diamond Realisations (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.51).
- He sat on the Board of Trade’s Diamond Export Committee and the joint Ministry of Economic Warfare-De Beers steering committee of early 1940 (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.44, p.51).
- His report of 27 March 1940 held that a prosperous secondary cutting industry could be developed in Palestine only under “a very strict limit to its immediate extension” (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.33).
- He recommended a Jewish-only organization under Oved Ben-Ami, licensed joint purchase solely from the Diamond Trading Company, a minimum wage on Belgian lines, and growth kept within limits so Belgium’s postwar recuperation would not be threatened (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.53-55).
- Chapter 1 note 51 gives his full career: born in Williamstown, Victoria, in 1891; captain in the Australian Military Forces 1916–1921; British Colonial Service 1921–1934; colonial treasurer of Sierra Leone 1930–1934; government director of the Sierra Leone Selection Trust 1934–1949 (the Trust established in 1934 by CAST, the Consolidated African Selection Trust); representative of the Colonial Office and Ministry of Economic Warfare on the Board of Trade Diamond Advisory Committee 1939–1945; deputy diamond controller at the Ministry of Supply 1942–1945 and gem diamond controller at the Board of Trade 1942–1949; created OBE (Civil) in 1934 and CBE (Civil) in 1941; died in Simon’s Town, South Africa, in 1981 (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.291).