Day 078 - 26 Jan 95 - Page 25
1 Q. Who is a personal a friend at that time?
2 A. At that time he was not a personal friend; he was just
3 an acquaintance.
4
5 Q. You had worked for him, though, had you not, in the past?
6 A. Yes, but I would not call him even an acquaintance when
7 I worked for him. He was the governor.
8
9 Q. He is a personal friend now?
10 A. I know him socially now.
11
12 Q. "I can assure you there is no intention for anybody to send
13 Lord Sam's letter back to Buckingham Palace but we must
14 have belt and braces in this situation". So, you were
15 asking for a letter from Lord Vesty. You basically said
16 what you wanted to him which is you wanted an assurance
17 that, although the beef was from Brazil, it would not come
18 from ex-rainforest areas; is that correct?
19 A. Having been told at last the political reasons why
20 McDonald's did not want beef to come from Brazil, and as
21 has also been mentioned yesterday, having clearly
22 understood that having got an intervention board balance
23 sheet licence with a very tight time schedule on it,
24 Mr. Rhea accepted my reasons that we should take this meat
25 which was available from Brazil both commercially and on a
26 time factor. But, having done that, and I knew the meat
27 was not coming from the rainforest area, to help McDonald's
28 and to make sure that McDonald's were absolutely clear,
29 I asked for that letter.
30
31 Q. How did you know -----
32 A. But that letter just confirmed what I knew.
33
34 Q. So you knew it was not coming from a ex-rainforest area
35 because you had been assured by George Cohon?
36 A. No, not George Cohon at all.
37
38 Q. How did you know?
39 A. Well, you have got to go back in time to the fact that
40 Peter Bartram, Ian Kelly and I were colleagues who had
41 worked together in the Vesty and Weddel offices. I knew
42 where every Vesty plant in the world was, not only the ones
43 in Brazil.
44
45 Q. Yes, but you do not know all the sources of the beef of
46 every plant that Vestys have in the world, do you?
47 A. I have a very shrewd idea.
48
49 Q. Yes, but you have not any evidence. Did you have any
50 evidence or assurance at the time when you purchased your
51 first consignment, or whatever, on the actual sources of
52 that beef?
53 A. Yes, because by that time I had been speaking to
54 Ian Kelly and by the time the beef started to move towards
55 Europe, I already had written evidence from Lord Vesty.
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: At the moment you are being asked about your
58 state of knowledge at the time you wrote the 17th May
59 letter, do you understand?
60 A. Yes, sir.
