THE LURE OF I. D. B

Hokitika Guardian, 29 April 1926, Page 4

THE LURE OF I. D. B

(By a South African Official.)

■I. D, B.’ —-illicit, diamond buying—is said to In; greatly in the increase in (be 'J ran-vaaf. in spite of severe penalties.

A Kaffir caught selling “rough” diamonds in the streets of Kimberley would risk being lynched ; any European buying from him would get a l ad man-handling if I lie diggers caught him. even if I, escaped being tarred and feathered through the town, lie would neither deserve nor get sympathy; for diamond miners, white and black, submit themselves to ignominious searches for stolen gems at the bands of the mine’s detective staff and to many humiliating regulations trained to prevent tile theft of diamon Is.

KiiHir minors nre practically prisniior.s on their inino, the only entrance to 11 1 o'- Kaffir livitin compounds ni most mines 'being a niimnr underground tunnel only to be entered under the keen eyes of detectives. Vi ailed in like nmol yards, the < em- | >oumls are surrounded by hie'ii ..Vireuotting len.es In prevent thieves inside throwing stolen diamonds to outside accomplices. The black miners live in iron lints inside the walls and tin not lea ve tin 1 mine until their three of six months' (untraet, lias expired. A thorough search is then made of tiuir lints, clothing, and belongings, amt. it suspicion warrants it. the suspect is put under X-rays. Despite these precautions and the vigilance of the mines’ detective staff, the ease with which rough diamonds can he concealed still makes systemat ie theft a flourishing hiisiness. Thieves show vast ingenuity in devising hiding-places. Stolen stones have ebon discovered behind eyelids, under finger-nails, in ears, and between toes, embedded in food and in boot soles, and even stuck with lamps of clay, like waits, on the Kaffir thief’s black face.

Since every unbraced theft brands every dinner on the mines as an ;.n-

detected diamond thief, it is not surprising to hear that the diggers have sent a deputation to Capetown urging that drastic penalties, including (logging. penal servitude, and deportation, be added to the heavy fines and imprisonment now meted out to illicit diamond buyers. But even tile prospect of a life sentence on Capetown’s breakwater may not hold back the crook from the li re of 1.D.8. For huge fortunes have Lien made from stolen diamonds not only in F'.o Cape, but on the Bourse of Amsterdam, on Vienna’s Wahringstrasser. in Berlin, and, mayhap, even in Hatton Garden, for in all the world’s groat diamond' markets agents of the 1.D.8. men carry on their trade.