Day 149 - 06 Jul 95 - Page 30


     
     1        McDonald's documents a pretty comprehensive list, for
     2        example, for 1983/1984, simply because at the time of the
     3        World Wildlife Fund affair the suppliers were written to.
     4        So we have the names for that period, but that is an
     5        historical accident.
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But that is material which is already
     8        available?
     9
    10   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.  It is all in one of the Civil Evidence Act
    11        witness bundles.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, I remember that.
    14
    15   MR. RAMPTON:  It is all there.  There are other sources as well,
    16        where an intelligent person with a bit of effort can make
    17        quite a good list for different periods of McDonald's
    18        history.
    19
    20   MS. STEEL:  Just to cut the thing short, if the Plaintiffs know
    21        where it is, then if they could just say so, then obviously
    22        that would be very helpful.
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Without looking back at it, 83/84 you have,
    25        because after the World Wildlife Fund bother (I will call
    26        it), letters were written to all the suppliers, and we have
    27        a list of those letters.
    28
    29   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, we have.  We have the responses -- that
    30        bit of it is all in the volume yellow XIV.
    31
    32   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  What you are saying is you have those,
    33        because there was the fuss that no other records had been
    34        kept because there was no reason to do it once that
    35        appeared to have blown over; and you have the most recent
    36        ones, because they have not yet been destroyed.
    37
    38   MR. RAMPTON:  We have asked for a list, which they have done,
    39        because they know who their current suppliers are.
    40
    41        My Lord, this is not the only source.  There are other
    42        sources.  Off the top of my head, I cannot remember
    43        precisely where to find them.  There are, for example, a
    44        whole lot of certificates from, I think, a later year, to
    45        the effect that beef is UK domestic only, signed by
    46        suppliers.  That is volume XV.
    47
    48        If one bothers, one can trace through the identities.  One
    49        can, in fact, see that this document is really all the same
    50        people.  I do not propose to do that exercise now, if 
    51        your Lordship will forgive me. 
    52 
    53        The relevance of this is supposed to be, I think, whether
    54        or not the Company in the United States ever imports any
    55        beef from rainforest areas of other countries.  So it is --
    56        if I might put it bluntly -- pretty damn remote.
    57
    58   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  As I understand it, it was that a potential
    59        witness for the Defendants in the United States would be
    60        able to cast his eye over the list and have some idea of

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