Day 077 - 25 Jan 95 - Page 75
1 A. My pages are not numbered, sir.
2
3 Q. Nor are mine. Have you got your letter of 17th May 1983?
4 A. To Peter Bartram, yes.
5
6 Q. Pass that letter and you should find a minute of a meeting
7 held on 9th June 1983. Do you have that?
8 A. Yes.
9
10 Q. Can you put the Vesty letter in front of that and mark it
11 13A at the bottom, please, so we have the complete bundle.
12 Can we have a quick look at this letter from Vesty? It is
13 in fact addressed to you. Do you see that?
14 A. Yes.
15
16 Q. It is headed "The Lord Vesty" and the address is 14
17 Smithfield. Is that where the company has its offices?
18 A. Yes.
19
20 Q. Is that squiggle at the bottom of the page Lord Vesty's
21 subject, do you think?
22 A. Yes.
23
24 Q. "Dear Mr. Walker, I thought I should write to you to
25 explain the situation about our beef from Brazil. Our
26 plant who supplies meat to the UK has done so since 1912.
27 It is situated at Barretos in the State of Sao Paulo some
28 2,000 kms south of the river Amazon and its surrounding
29 rainforest. The 200,000 head of cattle killed there
30 annually are bred on the natural scrub plains of the states
31 of Minas, Goias and Mato Grosso and also on the very
32 extensive flood plain of the river Paraguay. All the areas
33 are wll within 1,000 kms of Barretos. They are fattened in
34 the state of Sao Paulo where the records show that pasture
35 has been formed since 1880, when the original forest was
36 killed by an extremely hard frost and subsequent fires.
37 This land is now intensively farmed. It is therefore
38 obvious that this export works is not involved with pasture
39 formation or cattle raising in the rainforest region of
40 Brazil and we would never find it economically feasible to
41 truck fat cattle 2,000 kms."
42
43 I do not intend to read the last paragraph. It speaks for
44 itself. As at 6th June 1983 had you, David Walker, any
45 reason to doubt what was written in that letter from Lord
46 Vesty?
47 A. None whatsoever.
48
49 Q. Have you in the 11 years which have elapsed or more since
50 that letter was written found any reason to doubt the
51 accuracy of what is written in that letter?
52 A. None whatsoever.
53
54 Q. Have you yourself bean to Barretos in Brazil?
55 A. Yes, I have.
56
57 Q. When did you go to Barretos?
58 A. December 1983.
59
60 Q. Why did you go?
