Day 158 - 19 Jul 95 - Page 41


     
     1
     2   MR. RAMPTON:  You can if you want but it just wastes time.  Page
     3        12 of division 4 of tab 5 of yellow XI.  This is a letter,
     4        if your Lordship will remember, to the Managing Director
     5        of, I think they were, the importing agents.
     6
     7   MR. MORRIS:  Has it got a number at the bottom of the page?
     8
     9   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, in handwriting, 12.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  12 and 13.
    12
    13   MR. RAMPTON:  17th May 1983.  My Lord, this is to the Managing
    14        Director.  I think they were the shipping agents, Weddel.
    15        I think I remember the evidence was they were, in fact, a
    16        subsidiary of Vesty.  My Lord, it is the fourth paragraph,
    17        Mr. Walker writes to Mr. Bartram:  "I have just this
    18        morning received a telephone call from Bob Rhea" -- he, of
    19        course, was the head of McDonald's UK at that time -- "and
    20        I now know the political reason for the instruction.
    21        I hasten to add on his responsibility he has given me
    22        permission to use Brazilian beef".  Then there is something
    23        about background and the spat with the Duke of Edinburgh.
    24
    25        Page 2:  "Our man in Canada is very ethical and not one who
    26        would lie to the President of the World Wild Life
    27        Association, and the whole matter has now got to the desk
    28        of Fred Turner in Oak Brook, Head Office, Chicago, who has
    29        issued a worldwide edict" -- if Mr. Morris likes to regard
    30        that as a term of art, so be it, that is his problem --
    31         "that no McDonald's plant was to use Brazilian beef.  What
    32        I have asked you for this morning is for you to approach
    33        Lord Sam", that is Lord Vesty, "indeed, I would do it
    34        myself, for a letter to the effect that the Vesty
    35        Organisation has for a number of years been killing beef
    36        from Brazil and that Brazilian beef probably is in terms of
    37        numbers second only to the Argentine in South America, and
    38        all beef emanates from estates which are long established
    39        and in no way is this beef coming from reclaimed land from
    40        destroyed rain forest" which, of course, is the very letter
    41        that Lord Vesty in due course wrote.
    42
    43        Mr. Walker goes on:  "With my knowledge of the Vesty
    44        Organisation and, indeed, my personal friendship with
    45        people who worked in Brazil, I am sure this is correct.
    46
    47        If Lord Sam would be kind enough to write to me confirming
    48        these facts and the fact that the cattle comes from estates
    49        established up to 100 years by now, the letter will be kept
    50        filed here in McKey and a copy will be sent to McDonald's 
    51        in London and possibly the Managing Director of McDonald's, 
    52        Bob Rhea, will use the letter to back up our business with 
    53        Weddels and explain to Fred Turner in Chicago the reasons
    54        for his decision.
    55
    56        I realise that what we are talking about is political, and
    57        I can assure you that there is no intention for anybody to
    58        send Lord Sam's letter back to Buckingham Palace, but we
    59        must have belt and braces in this situation".
    60

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