Who Runs the World - Part III
The Founder of international diamond industry, of Rhodesia, and of the Scholarships. Also the Premier of the Cape.
CECIL RHODES
The Lawgiver -- of the Glen Grey act, of the Rhodesia's; the World States man -- the confidant of Queen Victoria and Kaiser Wilhelm, the colleague of Lord Salisbury, Lord Rosebery [a British Prime Minister who was related to Rothschilds], and other British political leaders; and the Visionary -- the giant genius who dreamed of reuniting the English-speaking worlds, linking the Cape to Cairo by rail and telegraph, and propagating a heady gospel of decent deeds, of noble ends absolving questionable means, and of the compelling pull of purposeful magnets of destiny.
Born an aristocrat, by the time of his death in 1902 at 48, Cecil Rhodes and his siblings received rents from nearly 1600 properties of the family estate, which were purchased before his father died in 1794. Rhodes was ruthless, evil, vain, and cunning. He used whatever means to bring Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) under British rule, as well as, give British protection to Botswana and Malawi. He almost took Mozambique from the Portuguese, and Zaire from the Belgians. He fought the Anglo-Boer War against the Afrikaners who lived in Natal and the interior highlands, where they set up two independent republics, the Orange Free State and the South African (Transvaal) Republic. There, gold was discovered and Rhodes used any and all means to gain control of these countries in order to gain control of the gold. It should be noted that back in Britain, supported by the British Foreign Office and sympathetic newspapers, the Brits were fed a steady diet of why it would be good for Britain to help the poor, backward Africans have peace.
Rhodes spent most of his time in South Africa looking to consolidate all of the diamond concessions under his power. There were the two DeBeers mines and the "Kimberley", which was divided into four mine with over 3,600 claims against it and owned by 98 companies and individuals. According to his biographer, "power" and "control" were central organizing principles for Rhodes. He used his own money, along with that of several others, including: Alfred Beit, who owned the most powerful South African financial house of Wernher, Beit & Co.; Lionel Phillips, who controlled H. Eckstein & Company, the largest South African mining syndicate; and the heavy financial backing of the British and French Rothschild banks. And so, by 1889 Rhodes was able to put the Kimberley diamond mines under his DeBeers Diamonds.
Rhodes waged war against any and all who got in his way of consolidating the diamond mines. Supported by the British government, which agreed to his Anglo-American vision, Rhodes waged a financial war against competitors Barney Barnato and the Standard Company, and Baring Gould and the Central Company. Rhodes said of the Central Company, "We must have the four mines and I will allow no foreign vulture to step in at the end and form a separate mine on the Stock exchange apart form us to get a flotation on our name" . His method was to swallow up poorer ones and buy out richer ones.
After diamonds were found on the DeBeers farms, Rhodes mercenaries fought a vicious war against the Boers, "independent-minded farmers, ranchers, and merchants in southern Africa who lived by the Bible and rifle" (Institute for Historical Review). They were lead by President Paul Kruger. According to Mark Weber of the Institute for Historical Review, Jan Smuts, a 31 year old Boer general, and future South African prime minister, wrote that for every male Boer killed four Boer women and children were starved to death in British concentration camps. He described the war as follows:
Lord Kitchener has begun to carry out a policy in both Boer republics of unbelievable barbarism and gruesomeness which violates the most elementary principles of the international rules of war. Almost all farmsteads and villages in both republics have been burned down and destroyed. All crops have been destroyed. All livestock which has fallen into hands of the enemy has been killed or slaughtered .
The British government declared war after the Boers signed a treaty that recognized King Edward VII as their sovereign. The DeBeers corporate trust was, permitted to acquire any asset of any kind by any means. It could also own mines, water rights, houses, farms -- anything. It could trade in precious stones, all manner of miners, any kind of machinery, patents, inventions, and products in Africa or elsewhere. It could construct and operate canals, railways, gasworks, reservoirs, factories, and so on. It could engage in banking. It could even acquire 'tracts of country' in Africa or anywhere, together with rights transferred to it by indigenous rulers, and expend moneys for the pacification and administration of such estates .
DeBeers was to be run by "Life Governors", which was a new and innovative concept at the time. They would control the operations of the concern and be able to operate in nearly all respects as if there were no other shareholders. The five Life Governors would be entitled to 14 of all profits beyond the first 30% which would go to dividend recipients (Rotberg, 207). Once they had control, the Life Governors, basically, had another kind of East India Company operating, thus controlling 90% of the world diamonds. Without this cartel, the price of diamonds would be a fraction of the current market value -- as they are very plentiful. In fact sapphires and rubies have a higher per carat value, depending on the quality of the stone, than diamonds.
Regarding the Life Governorship and the ability of Rhodes to take DeBeers cash whenever he wanted to seize a new opportunity, both he and Beit gave up their life governorship in exchange for 80,000 shares of DeBeers, so that Rothschild and the others could manage the corporation.
In the case of gold, Rhodes fomented war, whenever it was needed and was not afraid of exploiting the graciousness of African rulers to effectively take their countries from them, instead of just mining gold. Regarding gold found in the trans-Limpopo region, the trans-Zambezia, the copperlands of Katanga, and the borderlands of Lake Malawi, Rhodes betrayed the trust of the ruler of that region, Lobengula.
To help with the operation, Rhodes offered Rothschild a large share, gratis, in what he believed would eventually prove to be a great thing, as he subdued Lobengula's territory. Rhodes was able to control Zimbabwe by "moneys obtained by pyramiding shares backed by promises rather than assets. DeBeers and Gold Fields had solid stakes but the famous trust deeds were licenses for stock speculations" . What Rhodes did before he took control of new lands is get a royal charter from the Queen to establish a mining corporation and, then, he raised monies by selling shares. The Rothschilds were always important shareholders in every scheme Rhodes floated.
After the death of Rhodes, Lord Rothschild, Alfred Beit, and Stead carried out the plans in his seven wills, which includes the Rhodes Scholarship program.
In 1891, Rhodes organized a secret society with members in a 'Circle of Initiates' and an outer circle known as the 'Association of Helpers' later organized as the Round Table organization. In 1909- 1913, they organized semi-secret groups known as Round Table Groups in the chief British dependencies and the United States. The Round Table Groups were semi-secret discussion and lobbying groups whose original purpose was to federate the English speaking world along lines laid down by Cecil Rhodes. In 1915, Round Table groups existed in England, South Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and the United States. Money for their activities originally came from Cecil Rhodes, J. P. Morgan, the Rockefeller and Whitney families, and associates of bankers Lazard Brothers and Morgan, Grenfell and Company. In New York, it was known as the Council on Foreign Relations and was a front for J.P. Morgan and Company, in association with the very small American Round Table Group.
There does exist and has existed for a generation, an international Anglophile network which operates to some extent in the way the Radical Right believes the Communists act. In fact, this network, which we may identify as the Round Table Groups, has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists, or any other groups, and frequently does so.
According to one expert on the dream of Cecil Rhodes', the U.S. Roundtable Group, known as the Council on Foreign Relations-CFR is the equivalent of the British Royal Institute for International Affairs, now known as Chatham House. Another group is the Pilgrims Society of which Queen Elizabeth II is the patron. There are other related groups. Many of the people who are members of one group are also members of other related groups. President Bill Clinton was our first Rhodes Scholar president and he, along with most of our presidents, and key officials, throughout the present and past administrations, are members of the CFR.
Source: SafeH
30.03.2007
"The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes." Benjamin Disraeli, former British Prime Minister
"“World events do not occur by accident. They are made to happen...most of them are staged and managed by those who hold the purse strings." Denis Healey, former British Defence Minister."
"Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world". Henry Kissinger