Day 255 - 23 May 96 - Page 36
1 what kind of documents they were again.
2
3 MS. STEEL: There is one actually in tab 1 which we missed out
4 which is the initial press release.
5 A. You see, I would not have been involved in making any
6 decision regarding whether to go to the press or not.
7 I had a totally different role in this case.
8
9 My presence at the first meeting, together with
10 Mrs. Brinley-Codd, was just to tell them why we had brought
11 the action and what we had done up to that point. The
12 decision to go to the press and how to phrase, or how to
13 word the information that went to the press, would be left
14 entirely to the PR Department. As long as nothing there
15 was said was factually incorrect, in so far as the case was
16 concerned, I would hardly be interested. Well, I would be
17 interested but I would not be involved in it.
18
19 Q. Did you think it was a good idea to put out these leaflets
20 and press releases? You did not kind of speak out against
21 it or anything?
22 A. No. I thought at the time you had already, yourself
23 and Mr. Morris, gone to the press. You had given press
24 interviews and you had put your point of view, and at that
25 time I thought it was appropriate that we should do
26 something to put our point of view over to the press, but
27 the handling of that was not my affair.
28
29 Q. But, effectively, you were all for what was going on?
30 A. Yes.
31
32 Q. Right. You say you went there to tell them why the Company
33 had brought the action?
34 A. Yes.
35
36 Q. And what you had done up to that point?
37 A. Yes.
38
39 Q. What was it you told them?
40 A. Well, the reason we had brought the action was
41 principally to stop, if we could, the distribution of the
42 leaflet.
43
44 Q. What reason did you give as the reason?
45 A. Because it was now getting worldwide distribution and
46 it was coming at all us from a lot of countries and people,
47 our are franchisees, our suppliers, our own staff, were
48 concerned that we were allowing this to happen and we were
49 not doing anything to stop it.
50
51 Q. Right. What did you tell them about what you had done up
52 to that point?
53 A. Right. I did not go into any great detail over using
54 the agencies. I just said that people working on our behalf
55 had attended meetings. We had established what had now
56 been advised by counsel and solicitors was sufficient
57 evidence to make a case against certain individuals.
58 I explained to them that we could not take action against
59 the organisation of London Greenpeace because it was
60 unincorporated, and that we therefore had to take action
