THE STORY OF DE BEERS (1939)

'The Story of De Beers. With Some Notes on the Company's Financial, Farming, Railway and Industrial Activities in Africa, and some Introductory Chapters on the River Diggings and Early Kimberley.'

Publisher's cloth binding with gilt titles on spine.

xvii + 344pp. Illustrated. Foreword by Sir Ernest Oppenheimer

Presentation label laid down on front paste down, "Presented to . . . With the Compliments of The Directors of De Beers Consolidated Mines, Limited".

This copy contains 5 loosely inserted letters of correspondence between the secretary of De Beers, Kimberley, and Mr. Neville Miles Airey of Ethel Mine, Mtoroshanga (Zimbabwe). The letters from the De Beers secretary have the De Beers' letterhead. They date from 1957 and concern a photograph album having belonged to Mr. Airey's late father. The secretary reports that they have examined Mr. Airey's album with interest and express gratitude for his kind permission to have them make copies of the photographs. The next letter from the secretary expresses appreciation for Mr. Airey's donation of the album to De Beers. Airey, in response, expresses gratitude for having received as a gift this copy of The Story of De Beers in the post. 

'Seventy-five years ago a prospector by chance found promise of diamonds in the soil of a South African farm owned by De Beer, a Boer farmer. Since that day, diamonds to the value of over £90,000,000 have come from the De Beers mine.

Mr. Hedley Chilvers tells the story of De Beers. He describes how the first prosectors toiled, how illicit diamond buying was tackled, how other fields were developed.

He tells, too, of the immense work De Beers have done in South Africa; for not only have they absorbed the diamond industry, they have also been instrumental in the development of huge tracts of country. In fact, they have helped to make South Africa what it is.' - editor's note