Day 283 - 21 Oct 96 - Page 42


     
     1        confused about a number of things.  But I just urge you to
     2        read that, and that whole two or three pages, when he
     3        basically tries to discredit their own sales director of
     4        Co-op Montecillos, and it struck me that that is actually
     5        quite true what he said there, remarkably true.  A very
     6        surprising admission, we say, that what he says there is
     7        that suppliers of things will tell you anything for
     8        commercial benefit.  And because he says they thought Peter
     9        -- how he knows, I don't know, it is all hearsay anyway.
    10        But in terms of an experienced person working with
    11        suppliers, for him to say that suppliers will tell you
    12        anything for commercial benefit to get your contract, or
    13        whatever, and that that is what the situation was, that
    14        McDonald's suppliers in Costa Rica thought that Peter
    15        Hillier was a potential customer or working for the German
    16        beef industry and therefore they were prepared,
    17        Mr. Gonzales says, to lie to him to get a contract is no
    18        evidence at all against Mr. Hillier.  But it is evidence
    19        that even McDonald's marketing -- I can't remember what his
    20        exact position was, very high up, I think he was the global
    21        beef manager or something -- basically does not trust
    22        suppliers not to lie for commercial advantage, and that is
    23        exactly what we say strikes true for anybody who knows how
    24        the kind of society we live in works, that there is a lot
    25        of covering up and exaggeration and losing information and
    26        deceptiveness going on, as long as it does not come out
    27        that is all fine.
    28
    29        The point I am making goes to hearsay.  The point I am
    30        making, the sting of the point I am making, is that
    31        McDonald's have brought in executives and heads of
    32        department who cannot possibly know what really goes on
    33        beyond their experience.  They are not allowed to tell the
    34        court so far as I understand, it is not admissible to give
    35        hearsay from the witness box, and that, in any event, it
    36        cannot possibly be relied upon because even they admit that
    37        you cannot trust suppliers.  That is what Mr. Gonzales, we
    38        believe, is saying there.  You cannot trust them when
    39        commercial considerations are paramount.
    40
    41        All the statements, for example, from McDonald's suppliers
    42        or McDonald's suppliers' suppliers, and in some cases
    43        I think it is even further removed than that, say about not
    44        using any beef in the USA that has emanated from outside
    45        the country, apart from the fact they are completely
    46        hearsay, double or triple hearsay, in themselves.  The
    47        people making those statements as officials of those
    48        companies would have to be relying upon further hearsay,
    49        there is no indication where they got their facts from, how
    50        they tested them or anything.  In fact, they were just 
    51        filling in standard forms which had been provided to them 
    52        with the gun at their head that if they did not fill them 
    53        in they would lose their supply -- they would lose their
    54        contract, sorry.
    55
    56        I can just imagine the conversations that went on when they
    57        got those letters, probably for the first time.  It is
    58        pretty obvious to us it was the first time they got those
    59        kind of letters about that subject, "Oh my God, what are we
    60        going to do about this, just keep your head down, otherwise

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