Table Of ContentECONOMIC POWER IN
ANGLO-SOUTH AFRICAN DIPLOMACY
ECONOMIC POWER IN
ANGLO-SOUTH
AFRICAN DIPLOMACY
Simonstown, Sharpeville and After
Geoff Berridge
© Geoff Berridge 1981
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1981 978-0-333-26592-5
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First published 1981 by
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Contents
Preface IX
List of Tables XI
List of Appendixes xiii
List of Abbreviations XV
PART A POTENTIAL ECONOMIC POWER
1 The Problem of British Policy 3
2 Will, Skill and Reputation 13
The case of the British government 13
The case of the South African government 16
3 The Economic Grip on Britain 27
British economic flows to, and assets in, South Africa 32
Gold and the reserves 38
South African economic flows to Britain 44
Minerals 46
Diamonds 47
Uranium 51
Gold 60
PART B DIPLOMATIC ENCOUNTERS 67
4 The Simonstown Negotiations 69
The failure of multilateralism 69
The success of bilateralism 72
The Simonstown Agreements: a one-sided bargain 76
Political interests 94
The economic factor 97
Summary 107
Contents
VIII
5 The Post-Sharpeville Crisis 110
British support at the United Nations 112
British support in the Commonwealth 123
Political interests 132
The security interest 135
The economic factor 136
Summary 145
6 Labour: Defence and Rhodesia 146
The economic factor 153
Conclusion 164
Appendixes 167
Notes 184
Select Bibliography 215
Index 219
Preface
Those familiar with the writings of Klaus Knorr will recognise in
the division of this book into 'Potential Economic Power' (Part A)
and 'Diplomatic Encounters' (Part B) Knorr's distinction between
supposed power and actual power. This distinction has not,
however, been employed as the central organising principle of the
book in order to highlight the appositeness of Knorr's conceptual
analysis (though perhaps, incidentally, it does) but because it
allows economic questions to be dealt with in detail without
breaking up the thread of the political analysis. Employed in this
way, it also has the merit of emphasising the fundamentally
hypothetical nature of considerations of economic dependence in
the absence of evidence relating them to diplomacy. The drawback
of this approach is that it necessarily entails some repetition of the
economic argument in the course of the political chapters.
In order to avoid overburdening the endnotes to the main
economic chapter (3), detailed references for figures on
Anglo-South African trade and investment have been largely
omitted. Trade figures which are unsupported by tables in the text
or in the Appendixes have been drawn principally from the UN's
Yearbook of International Trade Statistics and from the Board of
Trade's Annual Statement of the Trade of the United Kingdom;
investment figures similarly unsupported have been drawn from
sources discussed in the notes to Appendix 1 and, in addition, from
the Department of Trade and Industry's Business Monitor:
Miscellaneous Series (M4 Overseas Transactions). References to
The Star are to the Johannesburg evening newspaper.
This book began its life as a research project in the Department
of Politics at Durham University. I am indebted to Charles
Reynolds for the thought which he devoted to its supervision and
the encouragement which he gave in black moments. Among the
many others who have assisted me by commenting on drafts or by
sharing their ideas. I owe special thanks to Jack Spence (who
willingly made time in his busy schedule to read the entire
manuscript), John Day, John Hoffman, Walter Elkan, Peter Vale,
IX
Preface
X
Deon Geldenhuys, John Barratt, Lawrence Whitehouse, Howard
Williams, and Philip Cottrell. None of these is, of course,
responsible for any deficiencies of judgement and style or factual
errors which remain.
Richard Bowley conducted some statistical research on my
behalf, librarians all over Britain and South Africa were
indispensable and are unfortunately too numerous to name, Pat
Lay and Sheila Rimmington performed sterling service over the
typewriter, and my wife, Sheila, was an invaluable source of
general support who also gave unstintingly of her time to assist me
with bibliographical work and to exploit her knowledge of German
in order to translate Afrikaans documents into English.
For permission to quote from documents held in the Institute of
Contemporary History at the University of the Orange Free State,
I am grateful to Professor 0. Geyser.
For financial assistance, I am indebted to the Social Science
Research Council which supported the first two years of my
full-time research and gave me substantial help in visiting South
Africa in the summer of 1979. In almost equal measure, assistance
was also provided for this trip by the University of Leicester
Research Board.
G.R.B.
Leicester
October 1979
List of Tables
page
3.1 Bilateral trade dependence: Britain and South Africa,
1952-70. 28
3.2 South Africa: ownership of foreign liabilities. 1956-70
(selected years). 29
3.3 South Africa: net capital flows by region and total net
capital flow (NCF) as per cent of gross domestic
investment (GDI). 1952-70. 31
3.4 Annual average rates of return on British direct
investments in South Africa compared with similar
returns in the Overseas Sterling Area as a whole and
the world as a whole. 1960-8. 36
3.5 South Africa's annual gold output and net sales abroad.
1950-70. 39
3.6 South Africa and world diamond production. 1948-70
(selected years). 48
3.7 Industrial diamonds: principal producers. 1952-69
(selected years). 49
3.8 South Africa's exports of uranium, 1952-65. 55
xi
