Rhodes Revisited

Rhodes Wills -“ The Founder” by Robert I Rotberg, Jonathan Ball 2002ed

These research notes are specifically focused towards the succession of Rhodes Assets post 1902 in particular mineral right holdings, relationship with Rothschild and succession when Rothschild sold the 'cream' of the British South Africa Companies to the Glazer Brothers ( Bernard 'Benny' Glazer deceased 1984 ) between 1952-58 .

The Glazer Brothers are silent in SA history, yet they acquired foundation Rhodes Companies and mineral rights in various SADC countries.

The first section of these Research Notes deals with Rhodes Wills and his vision for the World and Africa.

There are missing bricks in history in the last century when the universally accepted understanding for the management of the colonies remained with Anglo American and/ or American South Africa ( ASA Ltd., ( add history as closed end investment company registered with NY stock exchange 1958.

One missing corner stone is Glazer acquisitions of African Mineral Holdings from the BSA betw 1950-58 and by the mid 1960,s the SADC mineral consolidation was sorted .

Bernard Glazer died June 1984 under mysterious circumstances just as his brother Sam in 1959 after the controlling bid for Lohnro. How was it possible for Glazer to negotiate with the Rothschild's , and acquire vast holdings of Rhodes Mineral rights , which ultimately by 1983 made Bernard Glazer the ultimate landlord globally of mineral right holdings .

Glazer had a close relationship with the SA Broederbond or rather access via close and personal friends . Clearly , the Rhithschilds were intimately involved with Glazer & the SA Gov during the darkest days of Apartheid.

Glazer was at the centre of SA sanctions busting during 1970-75 . Glazer was already a global citizen with diversified holdings in financial , property , industrial to underwrite his ownership of Volkskas International ( UK / Switzerland). In August 1974- President Nixon resigned , Crown Agents for Overseas Governments collapsed established 1833, Franklin National ( NY) and Michele Sindona empire collapsed , Texas Commerce , British Israeli Bank collapsed with many others that suffered exchange losses in the secondary market . A Glazer UK Holding Company Ashbourne Investments also came under review in a UK Tribunal Report .Also, the Justice Fay Commission of Inquiry into the activities of the Crown Agents companies with specific reference to Four Millbank Nominees/ Investments ( 2 separate companies ) are equally missing bricks in history .

Why Glazer and not Harry Oppenheimer with Rhodes succession ? Why the smoke and mirror over a century ? Why or who was instrumental in removing Glazer ? Was his power too much ? The kidnapping of Bernard Glazer son - Sam was the highest ransom paid globally (?) , but it must be noted that John Vorster assigned 600 SAP Special Branch operatives to find his son. Was Glazer the silent Godfather behind the former SA Government . If so , did Glazer with his ( formerly Rhodes) put Mugabe into power? The same question can be raised of the ANC as negotiations began in 1973 to put the ANC into power. That left 20 years to take the money out ( 1973-93) a year before the ANC came into power. The only problem - the Glazer Will Trust vests in South African Master of the High Court , Pretoria , which Estate Duty of Glazer assets were ultimately finalized in 2005. The Administrators of the Glazer Will Trust deny any ownership of mineral rights or holdings.

This investigation into Glazer Mineral interests proves otherwise .

Research of African Mineral rights succession 1888- to date is nothing more than smoke & mirror which resolution would sort out conflict in Africa .

In my opinion there has been a small cabalistic group - that has not only managed SA & neighboring countries via debt for equity ( mineral right succession) but instrumental in our demise .

Clearly , these notes are sectorial , but there is more to it. If Glazer was murdered - who hijacked his Estate and who is managing the ANC.

We're the ANC set up to fail ? In my opinion - yes.

Why - SARS( BIU) confirmed to the writer in 2006, that the sum of $468B had been externalized from SA . This excludes mineral rights . The Botswana Govt claims that MR were nationalized in 1970,s yet private agreements with Sir Seretse Khama in 1970 reveal Glazer retained a 10% royalty on MR and the Gov was given an acceptable interest of 25% in shares for the life of the mine . The same has happened in SA. The problem lies in the fact that 'Black Diamonds' at the apex of ANC leadership did not share as custodians. An example of the problem we face today at Marikana . Lonmin received reinstatement of 'old order' mineral rights in Jan 2006 shortly after the closing of the Glazer Will Trust 2005.

The problem we face today is that SA has lost over R 500 billion to ANC corruption post 1994 and our former finance minister ceded SA Sovereign fiscal authority to Barclays in June 2005 in a 'Arms Deal' / counter trade which debt for equity led to the acquisition of ABSA. The latter owned most of the debt in SADC countries and with it cession of mineral rights .

Rhodes / Rothschild never contemplated a sale or purchases of assets without control .

These notes address the culture of where this saga to re address the past began and find some clarity over the last century .

It may very well be that SA was sold out by the ANC themselves and have finally woken up to the fact that the horse is out of the barn and the wife is sleeping with the enemy.

Clearly , there was an orchestrated plan with the exit of SA Mining Companies the past decades , because before that the JHB was the richest stock exchange in the World.

The Q we should be asking is 'who' sold SA out ?

Let's start with Rhodes Wills as follows :

Pp74-75 Rhodes drew up his first will at 19, after having suffered what was taken to be a heart attack, and which followed soon after the death of a close friend. In this will he left all his worldly goods not to his father nor his brothers, not to the family who had nursed him back to health, not even to Queen Victoria as some did in those days when they felt particularly patriotic, but to the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, to be ‘used for the extension of the empire’. Says Rotberg: ‘This was the genesis of Rhodes’s later “Confession of Faith”, the forerunner of his many subsequent and increasingly elaborate wills…’ which ultimately resulted in his final legacy, the Rhodes Scholarship program. This will reflected a dream that remained with him from boyhood until his death, ‘that right-thinking, English-speaking young men, separated from one another by the ineptness of politicians, should unite in the common endeavour of spreading a new Roman civic spirit to recivilize the earth’.

pp90-91 Rhodes returned from Kimberly to attend Oxford. There, in June 1877, he ‘paid £5.10 and became a life member of the Oxford University Apollo Chapter of the Masonic Order’. According to the sentence that follows, it appears that he had been admitted into the ’33 Degree Rite’, although how he managed to be inducted into this level right away is not clear. [UNLESS HE HAD ALREADY BEEN FAST-TRACKED THROUGH THE OTHERS?] Rotberg continues: ‘At another level the Masonic interlude presumably helped shape Rhodes’s “Confession of Faith,” the later wills, and the protean thinking which led ultimately to the scholarships.’

p99 It emerges on this page that the “Confession of Faith was in fact written on 2 June 1877. Since his Masonic initiation was said to have taken place in ‘June 1877’ and this outpouring was said to follow that, it must have followed the very next day. It must therefore had already taken shape in his mind. Was the Masonic initiation as casual then as Rotberg makes out? (Rotberg reckons he just wanted to be one of the boys, the same reason he joined the Bullingdon and Vincent’s clubs.) Rotberg reckons at least that Rhodes ‘introduction and induction into the fraternity of Freemasons [was] … sufficiently evocative in personal terms to occasion the commitment to paper of Rhodes’s premier and forever most detailed statement of philosophy and belief.’ He goes on to say that this ‘uncharacteristic outpouring was the germ of his various subsequent wills and, ultimately, the Rhodes Scholarship scheme’. See also references on this page to author William Winwood Reade whose book The Martyrdom of Man dealt with ancient mysteries but also futuristic science. Rhodes said of this book that “it made me what I am”. He was also influenced by Crawford’s The American Politician which spoke of using a secret society to achieve a socio-political goal.

pp101-2 Rhodes’s chief goal in life was “to render myself useful to my country”. To this end he wanted to increase the population of the English throughout the world since he saw it as the “most honourable race the world possesses”. A very right-wing sentiment by today’s standards and one that would be condemned if made by anyone today – except, perhaps, if it was made by a Jew or an African. Says Rotberg: ‘To forward such a scheme, Rhodes recommended a society working in secret for such an object… He wanted a “Church for the extension of the British Empire”. It would be “a society which should have its members in every part of the British Empire working with one object and one idea…”

This was set out in more detail in his second will, which was drawn up in September 1877 – after having suffered another “heart attack” in August – and used the Confession as its foundation. In this will he left all his worldly goods in trust “to try to form such a Society with such an object”. As the executors responsible for bringing this vision to life, he appointed Shippard, then attorney-general of Griqualand-West, and whoever was Colonial Secretary when he died. At the time of drawing up the will it was Lord Carnarvon. Says Rotberg: ‘The will set out a program, however general, for the conquest of the world by a secret society.’

p147 In October 1882 Rhodes, who was in love with and lived with the man who was also the De Beers secretary, Neville Pickering, impetuously wrote out a will leaving all his earthly possessions to his lover. He handed it to Pickering along with a letter stating that there was an old will, “whose conditions are very curious, and can only be carried out by a trustworthy person, and I consider you one”.

pp233-36 Pickering died in October 1886 following complications due to infection after having fallen off a horse into thorn bushes. In 1888 Rhodes drew up his fourth will. In this one he left 2 000 shares in De Beers to be divided equally between his brothers and sisters, and the remainder of his estate he left to Lord Rothschild. His estate at the time was apparently worth about £1 million, though that amount would not have been quickly realised and his annual income was nowhere near this figure. He had helped his siblings in their various business ventures and was soon to purchase Dalston, the Rhodes family seat in Islington, London, but the 2 000 shares was a very small portion of his total estate, while he left the bulk of it to the very wealthy Rothschild, still with the request to form the secret society, which he suggested should be based on the Jesuit society and should in fact take the latter’s constitution and substitute the words “English Empire” for “Roman Catholic Religion”. Rotberg goes on to explain why this was very naïve. [CHECK ROTHSCHILD LINKS]

pp316 The fifth will came in 1891. Rhodes was on a visit to London where he was visited by financiers, newspapermen, politicians and society folk, but more importantly by Lord Rothschild; he was also dined by the Queen and by the prime minister [CHECK] Lord Salisbury. Before one of the dinners he drew up the will in which he ‘made the eldest of his living brothers the executor, gave Dalston to Frank, and then to Ernest and the rest of the men in the Rhodes family, with the ladies last.’ See Rotberg for other details. Importantly, he left the remainder of his estate for his big idea, which he entrusted to Lord Rothschild and one Stead, who apparently shared his vision. Apparently Stead quoted Rhodes as saying that “the thought torments me sometimes” that his wealth would pass to the hands of Rothschild who did not understand his ideas and had shown no reaction once when Rhodes had tried to explain them to him. The question arises then, why did he do this? Merely because he was, as Rhodes said, “well-disposed”? [INVESTIGATE POSSIBLE ROTHSCHILD HOLD OVER RHODES] It appears that Rhodes was bringing Stead in to manage and execute his vision, and he proposed writing a letter with the will to this effect. Stead thought Rothschild would be “considerably amazed” that he should have to be linked with one so lowly as himself and wanted Rhodes to talk to Rothschild about it, but Rhodes didn’t want to, saying that should there be any ructions, “I shall be gone then.” The suspicious mind has to wonder why he continued to include Rothschild at all, or why he didn’t want to confront him with this issue. One has to remember that he’d just met with Lord Rothschild immediately prior to this change in his will. (Later, on page 378, Rotberg says, ‘By mid 1890 he had, almost overnight, entered the ranks of the most powerful dozen individuals in the English-speaking world.) Surely wealth and power like that could not go unattended or unsanctioned by the other powerful entities. Surely they would have made sure they had his estate under control. On p408 Rotberg attributes his wills to a ‘desire to ingratiate himself with Lord Rothschild’.

pp663-64 Rhodes introduced the scholarships in his sixth and seventh wills and finalised the details in his eighth and final will. The scholarships were based on the writings of two other men of the time who had a similar vision, but probably not the financial capital. Details are on these pages, as well as details of his vision for an Anglo-American governance of the world that would lead to peace eternal! In the end Rothschild was not a trustee, having been replaced by someone by the name of Grey. However, Rothschild did write an epitaph in which he describes Oxford University students as being able to study ‘on the banks of the Isis’. Other trustees were Jameson, Roseberry, Milner, Michell and Hawksley. Milner replaced Stead, who had defended Boer rights during the war.

Rhodes assets at the time of his death are listed by Rotberg as follows:

Net worth nearly £5 million, but £3,9 million after estate taxes. (£1=$5 at the time)

Of which:

De Beers shares £2,7 million

Consolidated Gold Fields & other gold mining properties (Rand and Rhodesia) £400 000

Dalstom, Dalham & 1 584 other properties in Britain £146 000 (it appears that Dalstom, the family estate, was converted into council housing, which may account for the high number of properties, but this would have to be confirmed)

Farms (Rhodesia), land & houses (SA, including Groote Schuur) £141 000

British South Africa Company £69 000

Rhodesia Railways shares £172 000.

Shares in 125 other companies – Value not specified, but portfolio broken down as follows: Mining and prospecting 40; service (including Cape Times and various printing works in SA and Rhodesia) 20; transportation and communication 8; agriculture “a few”

There were minor personal and family legacies, but ‘Rhodes intended the bulk of his estate to power the vision which had been articulated in the Confession and elaborated in successive wills.’ Apparently Rothschild ‘knew that Rhodes wanted his trustees to provide scholarships worth about £60 000 a year’ while the interest on the remainder, he said, was to be spent “in the interest of, for the development of the Anglo Saxon race.” However while Rhodes did specify males only, he apparently did not see it as being limited in terms of race, even at the end including five scholarships to German students since Kaiser Wilhelm had introduced English at schools [CHECK], Rhodes liked Wilhelm and he held out certain visions for a confluence of German and English talents. Whether he ever envisaged black students is not known.

The important question for us is, what happened to his estate beyond the needs of the capital required to maintain the scholarships? How were his shares disposed of? By whom? To whom? This is where we need to investigate.

Rhodes and Lord N M Rothschild

p252 Baron Henry was involved in the registration of the Bechuanaland Company.

p229 ‘In 1887 Rhodes travelled back to Africa from England after financial negotiations with Lord Rothschild and Jules Porges.’

p254 Reflects how Rhodes’s competitors, like Cawston and Gifford, were better connected in the City, but ‘Rhodes had achieved the cooperation and confidence of Nathaniel Rothschild, and was beginning to cultivate Rothschild’s close relationship.

p257 When Rhodes put together a team to go and negotiate with Lobengula, he included among others Rochfort Maguire, a lawyer who had been a brilliant undergraduate at Oxford, where Rhodes knew him. While Maguire’s inclusion in this party has baffled writers, Rotberg suggests that one reason was that Maguire was friendly with the Rothschilds and as such gave Rhodes an entrée into British society.

p274 Last paragraph, talking about Rhodes arriving in London, states: ‘Rhodes’s family was unknown. He himself – despite his connections to Rothschild and his prominence in the Cape and his wealth – was still an object of some mystery and suspicion.’

p422 Mention of Henry Cleveland Perkins, ‘an American gold-mining expert in Lord Rothschild’s employ’ who apparently influence Lord Randolph Churchill to declare in one of his columns in the Daily Graphic (London) that the future of Salisbury was not all it was made out to be and could not justify the formation of large London companies’.

p489 ‘Unlike Beit and Robinson … [Rhodes] was … highly leveraged, employing funds lent by the banking house of Rothschild, by Beit, or, unsuspectingly, by those who purchased ordinary shares in De Beers or Gold Fields.’

p490 ‘Rhodes rarely ventured beyond the reasonable financial limits of his backers.’ Apparently he saw ‘charisma as no permanent or reliable alternative to what [he] called “the ready”.’ In the early 1890s he was powerful politically but not financially. ‘To a degree which was for him surprising, he remained responsive, if not subservient, to the London board of De Beers, to Rudd and the London board of Gold Fields, and to Beit and Rothschild.’ (The De Beers net profit in 1892 was £ 1 137 308, although it states that ‘great, unprecedented returns came to Rhodes only after 1896’.)

p510 Rhodes offered to raise money through his companies to extend the British telegraph line from Salisbury to Uganda, but only after consulting Lord Rothschild.

p619 In September 1899 Maguire wrote to Lord Rothschild … telling him that war seemed inevitable.

p627 In October Rhodes ‘began bombarding’ people, including Lord Rothschild, with ‘what Milner called “panicky” messages about [Kimberley’s] and the diamond indsurty’s peril’.

p683-4 ‘Rhodes derived a portion of power from others. Rudd, Beit, Stow, Rothschild, and a host of businessmen and financiers played critical roles in his rise as an entrepreneur.’ Beit was apparently worth about £8 million when he died in 1908. (What happened to his wealth?) Also talks of ‘Rothschild’s approval and insistence’ in a general sense and also mentions Rhodes’s appeal ‘to Rothschild and then to the French financiers for support during the struggle to amalgamate the diamond mines’.

Rhodes and Lord N M Rothschild and amalgamation of diamond mines

p187 ‘During these troubled times [smallpox outbreak] Rhodes was hardly alone in viewing the merger of mining companies, and the ultimate rationalization of the industry, as Kimberley’s only salvation. The Rothschild merchant banking firm of London made inquiries in 1882, but its attempt to amalgamate Dutoitspan in 1883 was frustrated by the impossibility of reconciling the many competing claims and hopes.’

p202-15 By late 1886 Rhodes and co had a strong position in the smaller Dutoitspan mine, but no stakes in Kimberley or Bultfontein mines. Barnato owned 40 percent of the Kimberley mine, which ‘was a good 20% richer than De Beers’, through Standard Company. Central Company (owned/controlled/run by Francis Baring Gould) owned another large share.

By early 1887 Rhodes et al had gained control of the De Beers mine from Gem & Oriental. The rest of this mine was owned by Victoria Company. Stow and Beit secretly bought up shares of Victoria Company in London until they forced an amalgamation of the De Beers and Victoria. This exercise cost them $57 000 and ‘one of the two major diamond mines in the world was under the control of a single company’.

In May 1887 Rhodes attempted to buy the Hall claims in the Kimberley mine which ran in between the claims owned by Standard and Central and were owned by the Cape of Good Hope Bank. Also between the two large blocks of claims were more claims owned by ‘the French company’.

Sir Donald Currie bought the Hall claims for £120 000 and wouldn’t sell to Rhodes.

In July 1887 Barnato persuaded Baring Gould and the ‘other principals’ in the Central Company to amalgamate. Barnato controlled the new Kimberley Central Company, although Baring Gould still had a share. A month later this new company bought up six smaller entities, including the one owned by Currie. All that remained were the holdings of the French company, which had underground shafts only accessible by tunnelling under land belonging to Kimberley Central.

In May 1887, Rhodes had appointed American mining engineer (trained in Germany) Gardner Williams as general manager of De Beers. Williams had been active in the salt, gold and silver mining in California and Utah and had also worked in the US mint in San Francisco. He had ventured to SA in 1884 to ‘investigate gold prospects in Barberton for a British exploration company’ and returned again in 1886 on behalf of the Rothschild-funded Exploration Company. He met Rhodes in Kimberley in 1885 and later that year they spent time together on a voyage to Britain, during which ‘they spent hours discussing Rhodes’s intention to amalgamate the diamond mines and then gain control over the lands north of the Transvaal’. Williams did well in Kimberley, though he was spectacularly wrong about the potential of the Witwatersrand. Nevertheless, he had an acquaintance and stature with Nathaniel M Rothschild, which would prove critical to Rhodes in gaining control over the diamond industry.

Both Barnato and Rhodes needed to acquire the French company [WHAT WAS IT CALLED?], which had been established in 1875 by Jules Porges, who still held most of the shares. Beit was Porges’s agent in Kimberley and Beit was friendly with Rhodes and had already helped him acquire the shares in Victoria. (At this stage Barnato was still in the middle of merging Standard and Central.)

Rhodes needed more than £1 million. Williams prepared a report which found its way to Rothschild. Rhodes then went to meet with Rothschild (NM Rothschild & Sons biggest merchant bank in Europe; list of previous deals on p203) and the latter agreed that if Rhodes could get the French company they would raise the finance. French company agreed to sell for £1,4 million. Rothschild provided a loan of £750 000, while Beit arranged separate finance from ‘French and German financiers’ [WHO WERE THEY?] who were given 50 000 shares, each worth £15.

But Barnato owned 20% of the French company, so instead of quick ratification, he offered them £1,7 million and argued strongly against the original deal at the shareholders’ meeting. Rhodes first threatened to raise the ante even higher, but then negotiated an amalgamation with Barnato in which he sold the French company back to Kimberley Central for ‘about £1 375 000 in cash and shares’. Barnato had control of the Kimberley mine, although Rhodes and his team now ‘owned a significant stake in it’.

In order to prove the superiority of the Kimberley mine over the De Beers mine, Barnato and his crew started flooding the market with diamonds, which threatened to drive down the price of diamonds and bust the whole market. There was also the danger that they’d list it separately on the London Stock Exchange. Rhodes and Beit decided they needed to buy enough shares to gain control of Kimberley Central, but this would take millions. Beit raised finance in Europe by turning to Porges and ‘other entrepreneurs in Paris [WHO ELSE CAME IN?], while both the London and Paris Rothschilds tipped in as well. The buying pushed up the share price of Kimberley Central from £14 to £49, and the avarice of Barnato’s associates led them to sell, while Beit’s cronies hung on, convinced that the long-term ride would be even better. Everyone hung in until, in February 1888, they had cornered 60% of the shares – £1 million to Barnato’s £750 000 – and Barnato agreed to talk. De Beers Consolidated Mines was formed, but first there was a court case brought by disgruntled shareholders of Kimberley Central who felt that Barnato had enriched himself in the deal at their expense. Eventually the amalgamation was not allowed due to a different legal technicality and De Beers had to buy the company. They effected this purchase through a partial share exchange [CHECK THIS INTERPRETATION OF P211] which took months to conclude until, by the end of January 1889 Rhodes and Barnato put Kimberley Central into liquidation. ‘De Beers Consoldiated subsequently “purchased” all of its assets, tendering a single check for £5 338 650 to conclude the deal.’ [DID THIS REQUIRE MORE MONEY FROM THE FINANCIERS? WHAT WAS THE FINAL CONTRIBUTION OF ALL CONCERNED AND THE FINAL SHAREHOLDING AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT SHAREHOLDING UP TO AND INCLUDING THE TIME THAT THE OPPENHEIMERS TOOK OVER?]

Consistent with Rhodes’s dreams of empire, the trust deed for the new company defined its powers so broadly as to incorporate virtually any activity, even opening a bank and administering a territory. Barnato argued against this but Rhodes wore him down. Rhodes also proposed five life governors, who would be entitled to a quarter of all profits after the first 30% had been paid to the ordinary shareholders. They would also run the company as if there were no other shareholders. These were proposed as Rhodes, Beit, Stow, Barnato and Baring Gould, although Baring Gould was left out in the end, a move which some believe was a premeditated double-cross by Rhodes. At Stow’s insistence, and with Rothschild’s agreement, some of these profit shares and powers were cut back. In the end, the rights of these life governors only lasted for five years, after which they were compensated with shares.

Rothschild and Stow had meanwhile been busy with other purchasing activity (see p204, para.2) and now the outstanding portions of the Dutoitspan and Bultfontein mines were folded into De Beers later in 1889. Through De Beers, Rhodes ‘had established himself as Africa’s leading entrepreneur. Backed solidly by Rothschild and ably abetted by Beit and Rudd, his company held unquestioned control of diamonds.’

p252 Brief visit in June 1888 to ‘discuss his diamond monopoly with Nathaniel Rothschild’.

p491 To maintain the short- and medium-term viability of the diamond business Rhodes insisted on an oligopolistic hold over it. This often meant buying up mines that were in effect too poor to pay. In 1891 he met with opposition from Stow and Rothschild when he demanded that the Premier or Wesselton mine near Kimberley be acquired. In parentheses: ‘The house of Rothschild, much later, agreed that buying it had been correct – a stroke of genius. It had been a wise and brilliant purchase, Carl Meyer finally wrote to Rhodes in 1899.’

Rhodes and Lord N M Rothschild and De Beers

p492 Paragraph 4 gives excellent insight into how, while Rhodes controlled the total supply of diamonds, the control of the distribution of diamonds to the cutting floors of Europe was in the hands of a syndicate of financiers – ‘the old diamond buyers’ – three of whom sat on the De Beers board, despite the obvious conflict of interest. [NB FIND OUT WHO THEY WERE] It is interesting to note that it was into one of these positions that Sir Ernest Oppenheimer was inserted after he’d joined [XX] in London, where his older brother was office manager [CHECK TITLE AND CHECK THAT IT WAS ONE OF THE FIRMS THAT SAT ON THE BOARD]. ‘Rhodes was never able to work De Beers free of the syndicate, and thus to achieve vertical integration of the industry. In 1892 and 1893 he contemplated selling … outside what he called the “pool” but Rothschild and many of the directors (several of the London ones also had conflicts of interest) effectively persuaded Rhodes that he had no choice but to continue to work through the syndicate.’

p494-9 Rhodes proposed an overproduction to create a secret reserve fund; this devious idea met with opposition from the conservative Stow, Meyer and Rothschild, but Rhodes nevertheless overcame this and realised a reserve fund of over £1 million. This section also shows Rhodes’s genius and how he could outmanoeuvre the London chairman Sir Donald Currie as well as go over Meyer’s head to Rothschild. This section shows that Rhodes, through his genius, and Rothschild were the effective controlling forces, that Rothschild was practical rather than idealistic, and that ultimately De Beers financed the establishment of Rhodesia. This last fact illustrates just how much can be done in a short space of time with a bit of mining revenue, and how, unlike other businesses that produce consumable products, the output of diamond and gold mines can be redirected and stashed away as a hedge against bad times, used as collateral for loans, or sold to make other investments.

A list of directors’ names for 1895 appears, grouped together according to different dividend amounts that they supported: Atkinson, Oats (17sh 6p a share); Meyer, Currie, Baring Gould, English, Thomas Shiels, John Morrogh, Stow, Rothschild (18sh a share); Wernher, Beit, Mosenthal, Robinow, Nind, Woolf Joel, Barnato (20sh a share). Joel may have been a nephew of Barnato.

p644 Production, profit and dividend figures given. ‘Rhodes owned 20 337 shares, and in 1899 was the company’s second largest shareholder, well behind Lord Rothschild, but ahead of the brothers Isaac and Solly Joel, Barnato’s heirs.

Rhodes and Lord N M Rothschild as charter companies shareholder

p278 To gain the charter, Rhodes offered one-quarter of the Rudd Concession to the Exploring Company (owned by the Cawston-Gifford syndicate, which included Baron Henry de Rothschild, formed after BEC – same crowd – had acquired a prospecting grant from Ricarde-Seaver’s Caisse des Mines of Paris; the Exploring Company was formed to ‘extend their Bechuanaland Operations into Ndebeleland and Shonaland, see p252) but further bargaining led to the formation of a shell company called the Central Search Association Ltd. Gold Fields and the Exploring Company sold to this Association the Rudd Concession, plus ‘all other past and future claims to minerals in the domains of Lobengula and adjacent territories’. ‘The Association’s capital was a nominal £120 000, £92 000 of which was paid back out to its creators.’ A list is given of who received what. The bulk went to Gold Fields, Exploring Company, Rhodes, Rudd, Beit, but Rothschild also got a handful, as did Maguire. The controlling directors are listed, some of whom were directors of a newly formed Exploring Company, this one controlled by Rhodes and not Cawston.

‘A year later, after the Charter had been secured and Rhodesia settled, Central Search became United Concessions Company’ with a capital raised to the rather giant £4 million. Major shareholders were the Exploring Company, Rhodes, Rudd and Beit, both individually and in combination, as well as Maguire and Rothschild, though these appear to have been tiny percentages. Strangely, there is only one more mention of this company, on p337 where it says, ‘Rhodes further agreed to give Lippert cash and substantial shares in both the United Concessions and British South Africa companies.’ It’s not even mentioned in the list of companies at Rhodes’s death. Yet it had an authorised share capital of four times that of the BSAC. Strange. [WHAT HAPPENED TO IT?]

Rhodes and Lord N M Rothschild and BSAC shareholders

pp286-7 Gaining the Rudd Concession from Lobengula secured the charter which led to the formation of the British South Africa Company with its sphere of operations defined in an almost limitless manner. £1 million capital was raised with Rhodes, Beit, Rudd and their associates holding more than half, although the major shareholder could well have been Rothschild, through De Beers [AND GOLD FIELDS?] and the Exploring Company. The share subscriptions, as far as they are given, were as follows:

De Beers £200 000

Gold Fields nearly £100 000

Exploring Company [BEC?] £75 000

Rhodes £45 000

Beit £34 000

Rhodes & Beit £11 000

Barnato £30 000

Maguire £18 000

Rudd £18 000

Thompson £12 000

Rothschild £10 000

Smaller amounts to: Abercorn, Fife, Grey, Harris, Jameson, Cawston, Bruce, Maund, Robinson, Buxton.

Rhodes and Lord N M Rothschild and Ndebele Concessions

p264 ‘On the other side, Rhodes was jubilant. “Our concession is so gigantic … it’s like giving a man the whole of Australia …” He quickly offered Nathaniel Rothschild a share in this bonanza…’

p273 Rhodes turned to Rothschild for help in turning around opposition to Rhodes’s holding the Rudd Concession in London. It states that Rhodes had offered the banker a share, ‘gratis’.

p275 ‘Rhodes had …Rothschild’s influence’ – meaning he could use Rothschild’s influence in the City.

Rhodes and Lord N M Rothschild and Rand Mines

p504 ‘By the time that Rhodes and Beit had finished dickering, Gold Fields (not De Beers) owned 10%, Rothschild 20%, and Wernher, Beit 60% of Rand Mines.’ It seems that the Gold Fields 10% were founders’ shares given to it by Wernher, Beit. They entitled the holder to 25% of all profits once the total subscribed capital had been repaid in the form of dividends.

2. CROWN AGENTS

“To much cash, to few ethics, to little sense”.4 December 1977 Sunday Times

BACKGROUND

Established in 1833 ,known originally as the Joint Agents General for Crown Colonies , and as the Crown Agents for the Colonies after 1963, the office’s title became, the Crown Agents for Overseas Government and Administrations, which was adopted in 1954 to take in account the inclusion of independent governments, non-and semi-government organizations and international bodies amongst its principals. Crown Agents is exactly what its name implies: an Agent of Her Majesty the Queen and historically played a vital role in the creation and management of what British historians called ‘The Third Empire’. While Lord Palmerston, Cecil Rhodes, Prince Edward Albert (“The Prince of the Isles”), and Lord Milner where providing the geopolitical theory and ideology to justify Britain’s Global Empire, Crown Agents ran the day-to-day affairs. According to its Charter, Crown Agents is an “Emanation of the Crown.” Through much of its existence, it was overseen by the Colonial Secretary.

The original or founding agreements were struck between the emissaries of Cecil John Rhodes and various African tribal chiefs or kings during the late nineteenth century; the African chiefs granted Rhodes ownership of the minerals in exchange for a few hundred pounds a year, maybe some guns, possibly a steam ship patrol for protection, and invariably the promise of education and other trappings of ‘civilization’. The agreements took the form of letters addressed to the company, drawn up on behalf of the illiterate chiefs by Rhodes lawyers who used deliberately ambiguous language that failed to draw a clear distinction between the British Crown and the Company. Rhodes in turn waved these letters in front of the British Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, and gained a Royal Charter, signed by Queen Victoria on 29 October 1889; the Charter gave the Company immense powers to ‘make treaties, promulgate laws, preserve the peace, maintain a police force and acquire new concessions’. Essentially, it could run the colonies like a government but make profits as a private company.

Rhodes model was the highly profitable East India Company which had done the same thing in India a century before. In both cases Britain enjoyed the fruits of control over vast natural and human resources without incurring any direct costs other than the occasional military intervention. The British South Africa Company (B.S.A) became known as the ‘Chartered Company’ and incurred the costs of running and developing the country.

LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS

Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia and Bechuanaland

(Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana)

On the 24th January 1870, Lobengula was declared king of the Matebele in succession to his father,Moselekatse. In the same year diamonds where discovered at Kimberley, Lobengula granted Thomas Baines the privilege to prospect between the Gwelo and Hunyani Rivers. In February 1887, he granted the Tati Concession, on the northeast boundary of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, to James Fairburn and Samuel Edwards. In 1885, the road to the north had been safe guarded by the Proclamation of the Bechuanaland as Protectorate under the British Crown. In 1886, gold had been discovered in the Witwatersrand and the following year, Rhodes had founded the Consolidated Gold Fields of Southern Africa. In 1888, he amalgamated the Kimberly Diamond Mines under De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited.

On 30th October 1888 Lobengula granted C.D Rudd , representative of Rhodes, “ exclusive power over all metals and minerals ….in his kingdom…with licence to win the same and enjoy all profits there from”, and with authority to exclude from his dominions all persons seeking or desiring to obtain grants and sessions of land and mining rights in his territories.

On 25 April 1888 Lord Gifford, Edmund Davis (Knighted in 1927), George Crawston and associates had registered the Bechuanaland Exploration Company (BEC),with its offices in Bulawayo and London, to explore the mineral rights within a concession that had been granted to them in Bechuanaland by Khama, Paramount Chief of the Bamangwato. They also formed the Exploring Company Limited., which aimed to have a wider scope and, even after the comprehensive Rudd Concession had been granted in March 1889, the Exploring Company was given a share in the Rudd Concession held chiefly by Rhodes and Alfred Beit, both of whom joined the board of the Exploring Company.

Shortly afterwards the Rudd Concessions Syndicate was joined by the BEC and there mining conflicting syndicates to form the United Concessions Company. On 30th April 1889 Rhodes , Rudd and Beit represented the Consolidated Gold fields and Lord Gifford on behalf of the BE Exploring Company applied for a Charter Company prepared to carry out the following objectives:

to extend the railway and telegraph north wards towards the Zambezi River,

to encourage immigration and colonization,

to promote trade and commerce and,

to develop minerals and other concessions under one powerful organization, so as to avoid complications between conflicting interests while securing to the native chiefs and their subjects the rights reserved to them under the several concessions.

On 29 October 1889 Rhodes received Queen Victoria’s Charter of Incorporation of The British South Africa Company (B.S.A) authorizing it to carry into effect, the Rudd ’s Concession and any others of similar character it might acquire with the view of promoting trade, commerce, civilization and good government within its sphere of operations.

The B.E Company became “Managers in South Africa” for

the Northern Territories (B.S.A) Exploring Company registered on 19th February 1895, which was reorganised as the Northern Copper(B.S.A) Company in June 1899;

the Rhodesia Copper Company registered on 31st January 1902;

the Rhodesian Broken Hill Development Company registered on 30thNovember 1904, and;

the Rhodesia Copper & General Exploration & Finance Company registered on 5th March 1909

The B.E was also the “Agents in South Africa” for;

the Kafue Copper Development Company registered 31st May 1905, and

the Bwana M`Kubwa Copper Mining Company registered on 16th March 1910.

These six companies were formed by Edmund Davis and allied interests.

On 28th September 1914, an agreement of sale followed between The Northern Copper(B.S.A) and its Liquidator, the Bechuanaland Exploration Company Limited, the purchaser company, accepted such title as the Vendor Company as to the property and assets agreed to be sold and transferred.

In an area known as “Hook of the Kafue” all the major copper occurrences are located in an area of 700 square miles to the northwest of Mumbwa, which is known as the Big Concession. In the form of a triangle the various transactions that determined its area and the distribution of controlling companies within its boundaries is as follows.

In 1895, the B.S.A issued the following rights;

13/02/1895 to Burnham, Ingram and B.E;

13/02/1895 to Charterland Goldfields Limited and;

21/05/1895 to JW Dore.

They were granted the rights to locate;

(1) 300 square miles of land and mineral rights, and;

(2) 100 square miles of land and mineral rights, and;

(3) 30 000 morgen of land and mineral rights.

The above rights were acquired by the Northern Copper (B.S.A) Company Limited, amalgamated and located in one block known as the BIG CONCESSION. The area was reserved from general prospecting by Government Notice No.32 of 1912 (Section 5). On survey, the area was found to comprise 700 square miles. The excess area was allowed to be retained on the same terms as the original grant, with letter dated 4th March 1903 addressed to Northern Copper(B.S.A) Company Limited.

The whole grant was subsequently acquired by the Rhodesian Copper Company Ltd., by whom the area was subdivided and assigned as under;

(1) 3 Areas of 10 square miles each: Silver King, Crystal Jacket, Sable Antelope

Assigned to Kafue Copper Development Company Ltd., by Deed 26/06/1905

(2) 3 Areas of 10 square miles each: Kafue Hot Springs, sugar Loaf and Ninga

Assigned to Northern Copper (B.S.A)

640 square miles assigned to South African Townships Mining & Finance

Corporation Limited by an Indenture dated 22/04/1922

Note: See BEC file for transfer of rights acquired and shareholder interests.

(a)Memorandum of Agreement between B.S.A & B.E, 15/12/1924 for Kafue Hot Springs, Sugar Loaf & Ninga.

(b)Memorandum of Agreement between B.S.A & B.E, 15/12/1924 for Chanobie

(c)Memorandum of Agreement between B.S.A & B.E, 15/12/1924 for Nkala & Lunga

During the administration of the Rhodesia’s from 1889 to 1924 the B.S.A had heavy annual deficits, which it covered by issuing new shares while the shareholders never received a dividend. Negotiations with the British Government resulted in an agreement with the Secretary of State for the Colonies, dated 29th September 1923, providing for the cash payment by the Crown to the Company as a contribution towards the latter’s financial loss during 35 years of “governing authority”. It was then decided to grant exclusive prospecting rights over large areas to responsible mining interests, which could afford to establish and maintain the proper staff and necessary organization to undertake systematic and thorough search for mineral deposits.

These “concession companies” had to spend a minimum amount each year on prospecting subject to the usual royalties and licence fees payable to the B.S.A or just prior to the termination of a concession, to take up stipulated acreages of special grants for more thorough investigation. In the flotation of these “concession companies”, the B.S.A was entitled to a stated allotment of fully paid up shares. In granting a concession, the B.S.A excluded from the area any small areas, which had been pegged or assigned under previous agreements. The formation and activities of the “concession companies” for the period of transition 1923 to 1931 and the period of achievement and reward for the various directors of the B.E until the death of Sir Edmund Davis(1939) is well described in the book by J Austin Bankcroft, “A Chronicle of Mineral Exploration and Mining Development for Mining in Northern Rhodesia”. (Zambia)

In 1924, the administration of Northern Rhodesia passed to the Colonial Office, but B.S.A retained its ownership of mineral rights throughout the Territory, except for certain rights, which had been alienated in the early days.

POST WWII & B.S.A Privatization 1950`s

It would require a mentally agile type of accountant to unravel the interlocking interests of these early companies and to record the transfers of proportional interests in various properties from one company to another. In order to follow mineral right succession after the Second World War, the White Paper for B.S.A claims to mineral royalties in Northern Rhodesia tested the validity of the B.S.A royalty payments by Senior Council. The results are as follows;

The British Government pledged to the Company half the revenue of future land sales and recognized the Company as owner of all the mineral ores under the ground all over Northern Rhodesia, and anybody mining those ores under the ground all over Northern Rhodesia, and anybody mining those ores has been compelled to pay royalties, not to the Northern Rhodesian Government, but to the Company. The British Government chose to avoid meeting the “Companies Claim” for its administrative deficit by appearing to recognize the Company as owner of the mineral rights in perpetuity in terms of the 1923 agreement.

The royalties question had been raised again by Welensky in the Northern Rhodesia legislative council in November 1948. In March 1949, a motion was passed asking permission to tax the royalties. Reconciliation began between Sir Dougal Malcolm, president of the B.S.A in Bulawayo and Welensky. In May 1949 the Company conceded it would be ready to negotiate with the British Government if invited to do so by the Colonial Secretary.

What resulted from the bargaining was an agreement dated the 14th September 1950 between the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Governor of Northern Rhodesia and the B.S.A incorporated by Royal Charter where the essence of the agreement is as follows;

“The Company shall continue in undisturbed enjoyment, as now, of the mineral rights owned by the Company in Northern Rhodesia until the 1st October 1986. Thereafter, the Company assigns to the Government of Northern Rhodesia 20% of the net revenue derived by the Company from the exercise on and after the 1st October 1949 and until and including 30 September 1986 of its mineral rights in Northern Rhodesia.

In conclusion, there have been two major ‘agreements’ in the royalties’ history;

that in 1923 signed by Her Majesty’s Government and the Company, and

that in 1950 in which the then Colonial Government in Northern Rhodesia was introduced as a third part.

Any validity, which the Company’s present claims could possibly enjoy, derives not from the original concessions and treaties, but from these subsequent agreements, Ordinances, Orders in Council and Proclamations. It is Council’s opinion, however, that these later only confirm the Company’s rights and privileges to the extent that they were originally valid. Whether the Company’s claims to mineral rights are valid or not, the responsibility for the present situation rests “entirely”, to quote from the Cohen letter, with her Majesty’s Government.

Throughout the life of the present royalties Her Majesty’s Government has been the sovereign power in Northern Rhodesia and the protector of its people. Her Majesty’s Government has been intimately involved, both as an initiator and as participant, at every stage in the royalties’ history.

NYASALAND (Malawi) AND BELGIAN CONGO

In may 1895, the name “Rhodesia” was officially adopted by the B.S.A for the Territories “now or hereafter placed under its control”. The word received “Imperial” recognition by an Order in Council of 1898, an honour which greatly pleased the country’s founder. The Matebele war in 1893 and the native rebellion delayed for a few years the events that led to the complete occupation of Northern Rhodesia. Rhodes had not been satisfied with the Zambezi River as a boundary, and at his request, the Charter as granted had no defined limits northwards.

Rhodes representatives entered into negotiations with Lewanika, the paramount chief of the Barotse, and gained control of an extensive area in the western half of Northern Rhodesia., which is known as the copper belt. Lewanika and 41 of his councillors signed an agreement giving the B.S.A mining and commercial rights over the whole of the Barotse dominions and this agreement known as the Lochner Concession was later repudiated by Lewanika on 25Th June 1898. The terms of a new concession was negotiated by Capt.Lawley on behalf of the B.S.A became the 1900 “Lewanika Concession” with rights over a further area in exchange for the reservation from prospecting what was known as the Barotse Land Protectorate. From October 1897 to 1907, Robert Coryndon was appointed the administrator for the B.S.A in the Barotse area. In the northeast and in northern Nyasaland, the Arab slave trade had been firmly established for many years.

In 1889, Rhodes proposed that a company formed by Harry H. Johnston (Knighted 1896) by the name of the African Lakes Company, established to manage Northern Nyasaland, be incorporated by the B.S.A. The African Lakes Company transferred its goodwill, trading and transport business to the African Lakes Corporation, with benefits of its treaties and concessions being transferred to the B.S.A, which gave the latter a tangible expression of interest in the development of the area. In 1891 Nyasaland was declared a British Protectorate, with Harry H. Johnston both representative of the British Government and the B.S.A affairs.

By the treaty of June 1891the sphere’s of influence of the Portuguese and the British where defined amicably. Johnston engaged Alfred Sharpe Knighted 1903) who had been assisting the African Lakes company in their conflict with the Arabs to proceed to Katanga with an aim of making a treaty with the ruling Chief Msiri, which would bring him under the British protection in return for a concession of mineral rights and other terms, which had by then become standard with the B.S.A.

On 12th May 1894, the British Government signed a treaty with the Belgian “Free State of the Congo” which established the boundaries of Katanga. By the end of 1887, there remained only one centre of resistance to the aspirations of the B.S.A. which lay to the east of the Luangwa River in the south-eastern corner of Northern Rhodesia by Chief Mpezeni of the Angoni, headquartered in the vicinity of Fort Jameson. This anti- British attitude was due to some degree to Carl Wiese, a German trader who claimed to have obtained certain concessions of both land and mineral rights from the Chief. This was quelled with troops, and the government of North-Eastern Rhodesia was established in Fort-Jameson in 1901 with Robert Codrington, a former member of the Bechuanaland Police, who had served in the Matabele war as administrator.

CONCLUSION

The original or founding agreements were struck between the emissaries of Cecil John Rhodes and various African tribal chiefs or kings during the late nineteenth century; the African chiefs granted Rhodes ownership of the minerals in exchange for a few hundred pounds a year, maybe some guns, possibly a steamship patrol for protection, and invariably the promise of education and other trappings of ‘civilisation’. The agreements took the form of letters addressed to the company, drawn up on behalf of the illiterate chiefs by Rhodes’s lawyers who used deliberately ambiguous language that failed to draw a clear distinction between the British Crown and the company. Rhodes in turn waved these letters in front of the British prime minister, Lord Salisbury, and gained a Royal Charter, signed by Queen Victoria on 29 October 1889; the Charter gave the company immense powers to ‘make treaties, promulgate laws, preserve the peace, maintain a police force and acquire new concessions’. Essentially, it could run the colonies like a government but make profits as a private company. Rhodes’s model was the highly profitable East India Company which had done the same thing in India a century before. In both cases Britain enjoyed the fruits of control over vast natural and human resources without incurring any direct costs other than the occasional military intervention. The BSAC became known as the ‘Chartered Company’ and incurred the costs of running and developing the country.

RHODESIAN ANGLO AMERICAN ( RHOANANGLO)

Bechuanaland Mining & Exploration Company (B.E) acquired all the rights and entitlements for the Northern Copper (BSA) Company on 28 September 1914.

1953-1955 Glazer Brothers acquire B.S.A companies

The Glazer Brothers (Bernard & Sam) from Johannesburg South Africa acquired the cream of the B.S.A Companies namely;

Bechuanaland Exploration Company Limited: UK Co. No: 26499 registered 25 April 1888

Tati Company Limited: UK Co. No: 134419 registered 6 March 1914