Day 248 - 13 May 96 - Page 21
1 MR. MORRIS: I do not think Mr. Preston really needs to read
2 it, the leaflet.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not think he needs to pore over it. The
5 point is, it may be the same in various respects, it is not
6 the leaflet, or a copy of the leaflet, Mr. Preston. Carry
7 on from there and see where we get to.
8
9 MS. STEEL: The point to be made, Mr. Preston, is that in your
10 leaflet that you circulated to all stores in this country
11 criticising myself and Mr. Morris, or attacking us, and
12 this magazine was one of the things you relied on as being
13 necessary to put out the other side of the story as you see
14 it, this leaflet that is referred to is, in fact, a copy of
15 a leaflet which was altered to suit McDonald's and which
16 basically you effectively considered was acceptable?
17 A. Is that a question?
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, it is more like a query than a question.
20 What I suggest you do is put a straight question to
21 Mr. Preston.
22
23 MS. STEEL: This leaflet here is the leaflet produced by
24 Veggies after you had asked them to make amendments and
25 which you never indicated to them that you were unsatisfied
26 with. In fact, you actually said that as long as they made
27 the corrections that you asked for, that you were not going
28 to take it any further?
29 A. I think the point about this is the people independent
30 from us, employees of Sun Valley Poultry, found this in a
31 publication in some entity they frequented and found it
32 offensive. It is a comment from a member of the public who
33 found it to be offensive in some way, shape or form, quite
34 possibly with that, and I do not remember the thinking at
35 the time, but quite possibly out of that came a revisiting
36 of the circumstances going forward; I do not recall.
37
38 Q. But the point is that the public would have got a different
39 impression had you stated the truth in your leaflets that
40 you distributed country-wide and the press release that you
41 sent out to the media if you had said the truth, which is
42 that the leaflet that is referred to in the church magazine
43 is one that you have effectively sanctioned?
44 A. I certainly have not sanctioned it. The point is that
45 someone from an unrelated entity found this offensive, let
46 us know about it.
47
48 Q. No, the point is you quoted it in your press release and
49 leaflet and you got it wrong, yet again.
50 A. Well, I just disagree with that. Again, probably a
51 matter for his Lordship.
52
53 Q. OK. If you could turn to tab 13?
54 A. Same book?
55
56 Q. The same bundle, yes.
57 A. OK.
58
59 Q. This is a confidential memo to all franchisees and
60 restaurant managers from Edi Bensilum dated 18th March 1994
