Day 142 - 26 Jun 95 - Page 47


     
     1        know, and I am handicapped by the fact that I do not speak
     2        or read German, so I would be an impediment, not a help, to
     3        either side on the issues.
     4
     5   Q.   I am going to move on from Germany.  I just wanted to check
     6        one thing first, just to say I have discovered pleading on
     7        the Czechoslovakian workers, it was August 1990 is the
     8        pleading.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What is the number?
    11
    12   MR. MORRIS:  It was No. 60.
    13
    14   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The page?
    15
    16   MR. MORRIS:  Page 23.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do not go back to it.  I will make a note of
    19        it.  Can someone just remind me what the very approximate
    20        rate of exchange is?  Is it about 3 to the pound or
    21        something like that?
    22
    23   MR. RAMPTON:  Nowadays?
    24
    25   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    26
    27   MR. RAMPTON:  Deutschemarks.
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    30
    31   MR. RAMPTON:  It is below that but it changes all the time.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It changes all the time.
    34
    35   MR. RAMPTON:  We have a newspaper here, my Lord.  We will have a
    36        look.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is a pretty straight line going down as
    39        far as the pound is concerned.
    40
    41   MR. RAMPTON:  That is right.  2.2, my Lord, so your 3 was rather
    42        optimistic.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  My 3 might have been correct five years ago.
    45
    46   MR. RAMPTON:  It might well have been.  If it matters, my Lord,
    47        we will get it checked and find out exactly what it was.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  All I ask you to consider is this, that if
    50        you are going to say that rates of pay are low in other 
    51        European countries, for instance, it would be useful to be 
    52        able to convert the German or Danish currency, whatever it 
    53        is, into very approximately pounds sterling at the time.
    54
    55        It only takes the matter part of the way, if anywhere at
    56        all, because you must not assume I know what the standard
    57        or cost of living is in those countries.  But do not assume
    58        that I can look at so many deutschemarks or so many krona
    59        and a matter of sterling pounds and pence immediately
    60        springs to mind, because unless I have been there on

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