Day 255 - 23 May 96 - Page 16

     
     1
     2   Q.   Right, so you would have been aware of the article at some
     3        stage?
     4        A.  I cannot remember.
     5
     6   Q.   OK?
     7        A.  But I take it, as it is in that letter, that they had
     8        drawn it to my attention.
     9
    10   Q.   Right.  Would you agree that bearing in mind that article,
    11        and you agreed that the implications that were made in the
    12        article, that by this letter from Barlow Lyde & Gilbert to
    13        Veggies dated 6th May 1988, and you basically said it was
    14        all resolved to your satisfaction, that anybody reading the
    15        two could reasonably or might reasonably conclude that you
    16        basically thought the rest of the leaflet was acceptable?
    17        A.  No.
    18
    19   Q.   Whether or not it was true that it was acceptable, do you
    20        agree that people might very well come to that conclusion?
         A.  No, I do not think so.  We were addressing the two
    22        topics that were then, as we saw it, in the public concern.
    23
    24   Q.   Right, but you did not explain that in your letters to
    25        Veggies, for example, so anybody else would not know that?
    26        A.  No one else would know what was in the letter to
    27        Veggies.
    28
    29   Q.   Well, they made it public in Peace News, so you must have
    30        been aware that it was likely to get around the kind of
    31        Green and Animal Rights and so on movements?
    32        A.  I cannot remember now why we did not address those
    33        issues.  All I can remember was at that time the two issues
    34        that were of public interest were rainforests and the
    35        slaughter of animals, and those two we addressed.  I cannot
    36        remember at that time what my advice from our solicitors
    37        was.
    38
    39   Q.   Yes.  If you look at the leaflet that is in tab 6 of the
    40        "words complained of" bundle?
         A.  Tab 6, yes?
    42
    43   Q.   This has come from your solicitors' files.  If you just
    44        look through that leaflet, they are clearly notifying the
    45        public and other people in the animal rights and ecological
    46        movement about your letter and about the fact that it does
    47        not cover any other of the issues?
    48        A.  I cannot remember what advice I got from my solicitors.
    49        I cannot remember when I saw this leaflet.  I cannot
    50        remember if and when I saw Peace News, an I have to go back 
    51        to my answer that at that time we were dealing with two 
    52        issues that were of topical interest to the public. 
    53
    54   Q.   When did the other issues become of topical interest to the
    55        public then?
    56        A.  As a result of the Transnational pamphlet.
    57
    58   Q.   So?
    59        A.  And the article in The Guardian newspaper.
    60