Day 003 - 30 Jun 94 - Page 09
1 A. That is correct.
2 Q. Mr. Preston, your company has brought this action on this
leaflet. Do you recognise it?
3 A. I do recognise it.
4 Q. This is an enlarged facsimile of the original. Do you
recognise the original form?
5 A. I recognise the form, yes.
6 Q. Starting with this gross individual on the front page
hiding behind a mask and then there are three pages of
7 text and two on the outside?
A. Yes.
8
Q. Have you considered the contents of that leaflet?
9 A. I have.
10 Q. May I pass up, my Lord, a copy in the same form as your
Lordship has it which is this one, the serial A3 form.
11 Six pages. (Handed) Mr. Preston, I ask you no questions
about the caricature drawing -- call it what one likes --
12 on the front page. The reason is this, that the
interpretation of that drawing and the words is a matter
13 for his Lordship. You cannot give relevant or admissable
evidence about that.
14
But may I turn over the page because I do want to ask you
15 about some of the assertions which are made in the course
of the leaflet -- be wary and cautious in your answers;
16 I do not ask you what you take them to mean because, as I
have said, that is a matter for his Lordship and not for
17 you or me -- whether, in so far as they contain factual
statements about McDonald's, they are true or false to
18 your knowledge?
A. OK, I understand.
19
Q. Ignore the headings, if you will for the moment,
20 "McDonald's", "McGreedy", "McMurder" and so on. Look,
please, at the introduction and the blob. "What's the
21 connection between McDonald's and starvation in the 'Third
World'?" Do you see that?
22 A. I do see it, yes.
23 Q. May I ask you this question: So far as you are aware, as
the head of McDonald's in this country, is there any
24 connection between McDonald's and starvation in the Third
World?
25 A. None whatsoever.
26 Q. Passing on down that column, you will see these words:
"Hungry for dollars. McDonald's is one of several giant
27 corporations with investments in vast tracts of land in
poor countries, sold to them by the dollar-hungry rulers
28 ... evicting the small farmers that live there growing
food for their own people".
29
So far as you are aware, Mr. Preston, does McDonald's own
30 any investments in land in poor countries?
A. We do not.
