Day 001 - 28 Jun 94 - Page 51


     
     1        boundaries of the United States of America.
 
     2        We, as your Lordship knows, have been at pains to try to
              find the earliest examples of these rules.  In the end,
     3        and quite by accident (which was fortunate but there it
              is), the earliest examples which we were able to find
     4        which are still in existence and date from 1983.  On this
              occasion I would invite your Lordship just to have a look
     5        at them.  There are not very many because, again, I am
              giving a selection.  They are to be found in yellow bundle
     6        Roman 14 at tabs 54 to 63.
 
     7        My Lord, I am going to refer your Lordship to a very few
              of these -- five in all, I think it is.  54 is a letter
     8        dated 26th April 1983 from the Chairman of an organisation
              called Keystone Food Corporation to McDonald's at that
     9        time by Mr. George Cohen who was the president of
              McDonald's (Canada).  The letter is addressed to him.  It
    10        says:
 
    11        "Re. Hamburger Connection".  That is, my Lord, a
              reference to an article written by a Dr. Meyers which
    12        turned out to be as much of a farrago of inaccuracy as the
              defendants' case in this case, but he at least had the
    13        grace to withdraw and correct it.
 
    14        "Dear George, received your letter of April 19th
              regarding disclosed destruction of the rainforests in
    15        different parts of the world and I find your request very
              easy to answer.  Here in the United States McDonald's does
    16        not and never has used imported beef from any part of the
              world, let alone beef from central America.   In fact, I
    17        am attaching a copy of a letter," and so on. I do not need
              to read the rest of that paragraph.  The next paragraph:
    18
              "if you feel that substantiating that fact would be
    19        helpful to you, I would be happy to do a little
              behind-the-scenes homework on it, but if not your from
    20        Monty Humal" -- he, my Lord, is from the World Wild Life
              Fund --  "could see that I wrote this letter to McDonald's
    21        about starting a national advertising campaign against
              Burger King because of the imported meat topic long
    22        before I received your letter, I received it this morning
              April 26th.
    23
              If I had felt that McDonald's at any time was using
    24        imported beef I certainly would not expose myself or
              McDonald's to state on national television to advertise
    25        that we do not and the competition does".
  
    26        My Lord, the next document over the page, this is a 
              Canadian document and it appears to have been produced not 
    27        by a McDonald's person but one of the government
              inspectors that are present while the food is being
    28        slaughtered and processed.  Your Lordship sees at the top
              it has a government sign and then "Agriculture Canada".
    29        It identifies the branch as Food Production and Inspection
              Branch, Hygiene Division, and so on. It is dated April
    30        26th 1983.  It is to Mr. Philip Greenspan who is the chief
              executive Caravel Foods who are one of McDonald's

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