“People talked as if I were making a political speech, or speaking as a politician. I was not. I was addressing a meeting of the De Beers shareholders, half of whom were Frenchmen. Of course, the number of people present at the meeting was small, but I was addressing the French shareholders through the press. French feeling is very strong against England, and the French shareholders might naturally feel aggrieved. They had lost an enormous sum of money from the cessation of industry during the war. The part which the De Beers Company had taken in defending Kimberley was another point upon which, as shareholders, they might fairly take an exception. In order to parry their objection and to show to them that, after all, I was really looking after their business, I finished up with a declaration that I had been spending their money in defending what was, after all, the greatest commercial asset in the world, the protection of the British flag. It was a perfectly true thing, and it seemed to me a very useful thing to say in the circumstances. I was addressing, not the world at large, but De Beers shareholders. I had my French shareholders in my eye all the time.”
