Day 276 - 09 Jul 96 - Page 40


     
     1        A.  Yes.
     2
     3   Q.   What was your conclusion when you read about the legal
     4        dispute between Veggies and McDonald's; what was your
     5        conclusion as regards McDonald's attitude to the Veggies
     6        fact sheet?
     7        A.  The leaflet, sorry, the article mentioned about the ill
     8        effects of McDonald's junk food and the working conditions
     9        or the treatment of workers, and about the torture and
    10        murder of animals.  It said that McDonald's had not asked
    11        for any apology over those things.  So, I took it as
    12        meaning, as far as McDonald's were concerned, they were all
    13        completely justified criticisms.
    14
    15   Q.   That last conclusion that you drew from that, do you
    16        remember what the general feeling in London Greenpeace was
    17        at the time you were involved, before October 1989?  What
    18        was the general feeling about the Veggies fact sheet?  Was
    19        it similar or different to that?
    20        A.  I do not think I was involved in the group at the time
    21        the article got printed in Peace News.  But I do remember
    22        the Veggies, the Veggies correspondence being in the office
    23        and people discussing it, or bringing it up from time to
    24        time.  And the general feeling being that effectively
    25        McDonald's could not complain about or were not complaining
    26        about any of the other issues in the case, so they were
    27        accepting them.  And that as far as everybody who cares
    28        about animals is concerned, like people who were concerned
    29        about those sort of things in the group, it would be
    30        completely justifiable to use the words "torture" and
    31        "murder".  So that was completely unjustified of
    32        McDonald's to demand a kind of retraction of those words.
    33
    34             Then also, in respect of the rainforest part, just
    35        that people in the group were obviously -- in the office
    36        there were copies of "Hoof Prints on the Forest", various
    37        other ecological books.  I think "Death of the Trees" was
    38        in the office.  And, obviously, in the reference file that
    39        Paul had, which was kept in the office at least part of the
    40        time, there were various press reports and other things
    41        criticising McDonald's for their involvement in using beef
    42        from exrainforest land.
    43
    44             And so, you know, in respect of that particular point,
    45        people just felt that Veggies had been pushed into making
    46        an apology because they were a limited company and they
    47        could not afford to fight a libel case.  So they did not
    48        really have any choice other than to make the apology.
    49
    50   Q.   What you have just described, that applies from around the
    51        time you actually got started and got involved with the
    52        group did it?  Or are you talking about since the writs
    53        were served on us, or what?
    54        A.  No, before the writs were served on us.  I could not
    55        say it was directly I got involved with the group, I just
    56        remember it being brought up from time to time.
    57
    58   Q.   So that would apply to the period before October of 1989?
    59        A.  Yes.
    60

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