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
