Day 001 - 28 Jun 94 - Page 51
1 boundaries of the United States of America.
2 We, as your Lordship knows, have been at pains to try to
find the earliest examples of these rules. In the end,
3 and quite by accident (which was fortunate but there it
is), the earliest examples which we were able to find
4 which are still in existence and date from 1983. On this
occasion I would invite your Lordship just to have a look
5 at them. There are not very many because, again, I am
giving a selection. They are to be found in yellow bundle
6 Roman 14 at tabs 54 to 63.
7 My Lord, I am going to refer your Lordship to a very few
of these -- five in all, I think it is. 54 is a letter
8 dated 26th April 1983 from the Chairman of an organisation
called Keystone Food Corporation to McDonald's at that
9 time by Mr. George Cohen who was the president of
McDonald's (Canada). The letter is addressed to him. It
10 says:
11 "Re. Hamburger Connection". That is, my Lord, a
reference to an article written by a Dr. Meyers which
12 turned out to be as much of a farrago of inaccuracy as the
defendants' case in this case, but he at least had the
13 grace to withdraw and correct it.
14 "Dear George, received your letter of April 19th
regarding disclosed destruction of the rainforests in
15 different parts of the world and I find your request very
easy to answer. Here in the United States McDonald's does
16 not and never has used imported beef from any part of the
world, let alone beef from central America. In fact, I
17 am attaching a copy of a letter," and so on. I do not need
to read the rest of that paragraph. The next paragraph:
18
"if you feel that substantiating that fact would be
19 helpful to you, I would be happy to do a little
behind-the-scenes homework on it, but if not your from
20 Monty Humal" -- he, my Lord, is from the World Wild Life
Fund -- "could see that I wrote this letter to McDonald's
21 about starting a national advertising campaign against
Burger King because of the imported meat topic long
22 before I received your letter, I received it this morning
April 26th.
23
If I had felt that McDonald's at any time was using
24 imported beef I certainly would not expose myself or
McDonald's to state on national television to advertise
25 that we do not and the competition does".
26 My Lord, the next document over the page, this is a
Canadian document and it appears to have been produced not
27 by a McDonald's person but one of the government
inspectors that are present while the food is being
28 slaughtered and processed. Your Lordship sees at the top
it has a government sign and then "Agriculture Canada".
29 It identifies the branch as Food Production and Inspection
Branch, Hygiene Division, and so on. It is dated April
30 26th 1983. It is to Mr. Philip Greenspan who is the chief
executive Caravel Foods who are one of McDonald's
