Day 245 - 07 May 96 - Page 67
1 maliciously circulated untruths, you cannot justify that at
2 all, can you?
3 A. I am sorry, but I feel very strongly that the aims and
4 objectives of the organisation London Greenpeace were to
5 smash McDonald's regardless of the truth and you are part
6 of that organisation. I believe you knew what you had in
7 this leaflet was not so. There was no evidence to back it
8 up. Jungle burgers, which you quote, speaks for itself.
9
10 Q. Yes. It is not surprising I might believe that McDonald's
11 have used imported beef from Costa Rica if the Marketing
12 Director of its sole supplier in Costa Rica is saying that
13 he exports for McDonald's use in the USA, and he has filmed
14 saying that. It is not surprising I might feel it is true,
15 is it?
16 A. Well, I am sorry, I believe the motive to smash
17 McDonald's was so over powering and so over riding that
18 everything else dwindled into insignificance. Did you ask
19 for proof? I have no way of knowing. Here and now
20 I believe your intentions are solely to smash McDonald's
21 and always have been.
22
23 MS. STEEL: Do you ever wonder why groups campaign against
24 McDonald's?
25 A. No.
26
27 Q. You do not wonder?
28 A. No. Why would I wonder about that?
29
30 Q. Do you ever stop to think that all these people who are
31 campaigning against McDonald's is because they believe that
32 all these criticisms that they are making of the company
33 are true and that is the reason why they want to expose
34 what the company is doing?
35 A. But it is not true and that is why we are here in this
36 court before this judge.
37
38 Q. Do you ever stop to think that you might be wrong and they
39 might be right?
40 A. About their example of the rainforests? No way.
41 I know our policy and what we have done about advertising
42 to kids and owning land in rainforests, or putting down
43 chemicals to defoliate. No way. I know what we have and
44 have not done. It is absolutely untrue.
45
46 Q. Well, we have heard evidence confirming that you do use
47 beef from cattle reared on former rainforest land. Say,
48 for example, the nutrition section of the leaflet, or the
49 low pay, or the trade unions, do you ever stop to think
50 that people might be quite right to say that your food is
51 not nutritious, that you pay low wages and that you do not
52 like ----
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let us just divide it up in a moment because
55 you started off asking Mr. Preston whether he ever stopped
56 to think that people might believe that what they were
57 saying was true and now you slipped into asking him whether
58 it is true. I would like you to keep them distinct because
59 they are answers very different questions.
60
