Day 259 - 10 Jun 96 - Page 27


     
     1   Q.   Would you agree that, effectively, until this case, you
     2        were basically writ-happy and sending out threatening
     3        letters and writs left, right and centre?
     4        A.  No.
     5
     6   Q.   There is just one other thing.  Do you know Kew Gardens and
     7        someone called Ghillemn Prance?
     8        A.  Yes.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What was the name?
    11
    12   MS. STEEL:   I do not know.
    13
    14   THE WITNESS:  Ghillemn, Prance, my Lord.
    15
    16   MR. RAMPTON:  It is a Welsh name, spelt G-H-I-L-L-E-M-N,
    17        I think, but it is pronounced "Ian", and he is Professor
    18        Sir Ghillemn Prance, and he is -----
    19
    20   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What is the surname?
    21
    22   MR. RAMPTON:  Prance, as in horse, P-R-A-N-C-E; and he is the
    23        director of the Botanical Gardens at Kew.
    24
    25   MS. STEEL:   He was referred to in a newspaper article, was he
    26        not, criticising rainforest destruction, and it referred to
    27        grazing cattle destined to be in a Big Mac?  Do you
    28        remember that?  I can show you the cutting, if you want.
    29        It is in the Sunday Correspondent of 15th October 1989.
    30        A.  I cannot remember that.  I know -- I call him
    31        "Gillian", my Lord; that is the way it is spelt -- I know
    32        Ghillemn Prance.  He is very supportive.  I do not think
    33        I have ever found it necessary to write to Mr. Prance
    34        asking him to withdraw a statement.
    35
    36   Q.   This is in Defendants' supplementary documents number 8, on
    37        the third page.  Is it not the case that you wrote to him
    38        and asked him to withdraw the criticisms, and it was
    39        following that that -----
    40        A.  Well, we may have done.  I cannot remember it.
    41
    42   Q.   You do not remember?
    43        A.  No.  We are very friendly with Ghillemn Prance.  Can
    44        I just correct a statement I made a couple of moments ago,
    45        my Lord?  When I said about a dozen cases, I meant a dozen
    46        cases where we actually threatened legal action.  We have
    47        written to several people regarding the remarks they have
    48        made.
    49
    50   MS. STEEL:   What it says in the article is, it actually says 
    51        Dr. Ian Prance: 
    52 
    53        "....Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and a
    54        leading Amazonianist, is deeply concerned for the future of
    55        the forests there which are being rased in order to graze
    56        cattle destined to be Big Macs."
    57
    58        That does not refresh your memory at all?
    59        A.  We may have written to him and said we are not
    60        involved.

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