Day 284 - 22 Oct 96 - Page 11


     
     1        it is indicative of a sudden genuine concern, that concern
     2        is only as a result of criticism that may be affecting the
     3        business or the image of the company.
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Right.  Even if as a result of genuine
     6        concern, only the result of criticism.  And I suppose you
     7        would go on to say and after making the decision to open up
     8        and enlarge in Costa Rica, Guatemala and Brazil, in any
     9        event?  I am trying to help you.
    10
    11   MR. MORRIS:   Yes.  I am going to go into policy in some detail
    12        in a minute.  I have just given the context in order to go
    13        to the meaning.
    14
    15   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    16
    17   MR. MORRIS:   So moving on to the meaning, bearing in mind the
    18        context of the fact sheet, the meaning, if we can call it
    19        page 2, which is - the one with the picture is page 1, the
    20        one with the face and the mask, page 1 - page 2, which we
    21        might call 'the economic imperialism page'.
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
    24
    25   MR. MORRIS:   Hang on, before I just deal with that.  The
    26        overall meaning is, in terms of what the issue is between
    27        the parties, Mr. Rampton set that out very well on the
    28        first day in his opening speech, which was on page 48.
    29
    30        "My Lord, finally, I come to the rainforests.  The issue,
    31        as I have stated it, is this:  have the plaintiffs ever
    32        been responsible directly or indirectly for the destruction
    33        of any part of the world's rainforests."
    34
    35        We think that is a good statement of what the position is
    36        on this issue.  Obviously we believe we can prove both.
    37        And that is the sting, effectively, of the meaning of this
    38        whole section, whatever the detail may or may not be for
    39        any particular sentence, is McDonald's are involved
    40        directly or indirectly in the destruction of areas of
    41        tropical forests, which he calls rainforest.  We think the
    42        terms are interchangeable.  We will come to that later.
    43
    44        And we accept that that meaning is capable of being
    45        defamatory.  We believe that the words mean that the
    46        plaintiffs bear moral responsibility for the destruction or
    47        damage of such forests associated with the activities of
    48        their industry that they are part of and can be shown to be
    49        a part of, and the materials, raw materials, the beef used
    50        by themselves as well. 
    51 
    52        We would say that the moral responsibility means that the 
    53        plaintiffs have caused, have benefited from, have provided
    54        the incentive for, or have been reckless as to the effects
    55        that are being alleged, in fact that have been
    56        demonstrated, the environmentally destructive industry that
    57        they are part of, and a significant part of.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Can I transpose all of that into economic
    60        imperialism as well but just substituting the destruction

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