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HOB-NAILED BOOTS IN THE LOWLANDS
Dutch cutters who escaped will take some months, and to train further operators will take several years. . . .
They
claimed (in August 1) that 1,000,000 carats of rough had been captured
from Belgian and Dutch refugees in France. Cables from Berlin stated
that early in September 1940 between 4000 and 5000 men were employed in
the two cities; if true, this would mean 35 to 40 per cent, of normal.
Some work, at least, apparently began at Amsterdam in October (1940).
In that month the German authorities in Holland permitted the sale of
cut diamonds, the books of the dealers being of course under strict
Nazi supervision, but cut could not be mounted. Diamonds previously
mounted, in consequence, for a time increased considerably in price,
but early in 1940 this strange decree brought cut trading to a
standstill. Up to that time it is reported that no rough had been
released to Dutch cutters by the German government and in consequence
only 300 cutters were employed and they only on part time. A few
industrials were being sold, but only to Dutch industries, as export
licenses were difficult to obtain.
On
October 21, 1940, Herr Lemberg, counselor of the military
administration at Antwerp, called a meeting of the Belgian diamond
merchants, manufacturers and cutters. He proposed that all old diamond
organizations be replaced by a single union for all in the diamond
trade, to consist of two branches, one for employers and one for the
men. He stated that if this were not done the German authorities would
take the matter in its own hands.
He
stated that the wage questions were soon to be settled and that
arrangements for exporting the cut stones were being made. On January
10, 1941, a central office was established at Brussels with an Antwerp
branch to regular membership in the trade, to distribute rough and to
regulate the dealings in cut. Neutral observers state that there is
little trade in diamonds and that few men are employed. A sale of Congo
rough, captured during the blitzkrieg, had been announced several times
but had apparently not taken place by the year-end. In the spring of
1941 it was reported that the diamond cutters were not permitted by the
Nazi authorities to emigrate from the Low Countries.
By
December, 1940, a certain amount of small cut, presumably polished in
the Low Countries after the German invasion, appeared on the American
market. It apparently had reached New York via
(103)
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