Day 003 - 30 Jun 94 - Page 48
1 will be saved; they will be kept; they will be made, in
the process of discovery, available as required by law.
2
Q. I have only a couple more questions, Mr. Preston. Miss
3 Steel said yesterday, it was one of the first things she
said, that they were going to show during the course of
4 this trial that the public face of McDonald's is a fraud
and that the truth that lies behind the image is far from
5 savoury. Would you like to comment about that?
A. I think our public face is the truth. I think a
6 publicly owned company, franchised as we are, operating on
thousands of high streets around the world, has no chance
7 of not showing its true colours. There is no point in
it. We are trying to feed people, as I said earlier, over
8 and over and over again, in very short order. If we did
not tell the whole, the whole truth, and nothing but the
9 truth we would have no business; our licensees would have
no business; our employees would have no jobs and our
10 suppliers, individuals who, for the most part, have no
contracts with us, yet have made very sizeable investments
11 to service this organisation, would also have a major
problem, like: No business.
12
Q. Two final matters, Mr. Preston. The first this. Despite
13 everything, despite the repeated allegations that your
company is in truth a fraud that commits -- to use the
14 words of the defendants -- numerous crimes against the
rest of humanity, despite their persistence in those
15 claims, if they were, after all, to see the light and to
stand up in this court and say, "After all we accept that
16 we were wrong about all of this; will you accept our
apologies if we undertake not to repeat what we have
17 said?", would you accept that or not?
A. I would do, just as I did offer once before and the
18 offer was accepted by three other people. I would do it
here and now.
19
Q. Would you extract any financial penalty from them in order
20 to go with that apology?
A. No.
21
Q. The last matter is this. As you know, Mr. Preston, the
22 defendants have made a counterclaim against your company
on the basis of three documents issued by your company
23 during March, April and May of this year.
A. Yes.
24
Q. One of those documents was intended for use inside the
25 restaurants; the other two were in the nature of
information for the press. Is that right?
26 A. Yes, that is correct.
27 Q. The defendants say that those documents accuse them of
telling lies in the material they have published about
28 your company. They have, despite the fact it was I who
was supposed to open the case, chosen to announce in this
29 court that they would graciously let you off the hook if
you see fit to apologise for those leaflets. Can I ask
30 you, are you willing to apologise for those leaflets which
you issued earlier this year?
