The Cigarette Papers "d0e9701"

Establishing Limits For Sharing Of Information

Among the many concerns of the attorneys at B&W was the extent to which information should be exchanged, both within and outside the associated companies. The documents indicate that this concern was a long-standing one, preceding the second wave of litigation by many years. A November 27, 1968, letter from Addison Yeaman, B&W vice

― 272 ―

president and general counsel, to G. C. Hargrove at BAT—marked "Private and Confidential"—states:

Ed Finch [president of B&W] told me of his talk with you and in particular we discussed Tony McCormick's [a senior executive in the Research and Development Establishment at BAT] memorandum of 27th June to B. G. Pearson which had to do with exchange of pertinent information in the area of smoking and health. The approach is an interesting one and I should like to give it further thought and discuss its implementation with my opposite numbers [in a letter of December 11, 1968, Finch explains that this is a reference to the lawyers of the other tobacco companies in the U.S. who are members of the Tobacco Research Council {1809.03}] before trying to set up anything definitive. You will, of course, hear further from me on this. {1809.01}

The documents never specify the "information" to which they refer. A response from Hargrove to Yeaman, dated December 4, 1968, and marked "Private and Confidential," states:

You will by now have received the documents with reference numbers F.1193 and F.1224 which I left with Ed Finch. Having consulted Mr. Dobson, I confirm that the information in these documents can be made known in confidence to the rest of your Group in the U.S. Industry, if you so wish. We would not, however, wish the source of this information to be disclosed—although admittedly it would not be very difficult for others in your Group to guess this. {1809.02}

The Finch letter, which was written to R. P. Dobson at BAT, discusses the difficulties in exchanging information between individual BAT companies, and the problems that might arise from such exchanges.

I am in complete agreement with your statement that the subject of the exchange of information [on smoking and health] between individual companies within B.A.T. is full of difficulty . As you know, I have been and still am concerned about the problems that might arise as a result of individual companies corresponding with each other on this matter. ... From this information, it seems to me you would know best how the information should be used and whether or not it should be transmitted to other companies. In addition, I also agree with your thought that there should be personal visits between the major companies to discuss the health matters whenever possible [emphasis added]. {1809.03}

Also of concern to B&W was the extent to which BAT might be sharing information with British government officials. A memo dated October 20, 1971, from Dr. I. W. Hughes, director of R&D at B&W, to his superior, J. W. Burgard, and to the general counsel, Addison Yeaman, is on the subject of smoking and health research at Imperial Tobacco Group

― 273 ―

(ITG) in the United Kingdom {1121.01}. Dr. Hughes had just read a report about this research (possibly document {1120.01}). Although, he notes, much of the report is concerned with the technical program,

there are a number of points mentioned which give an impression of the way I.T.G. may be planning its policy in terms of the Smoking and Health area.

1.	Intention to make available to the Dawkins Committee some of the bio-systems developed at Huntingdon.
2.	Visitation to Huntingdon by Sir Derrick Dunlop (Chairman of the Medicines Committee). Dr. Frank Fairweather (Member of the Cohen Committee and cited by the Committee as an authority on biological tests) may also be invited; the thought is that he might be influenced by such an unofficial channel as Huntingdon.
3.	Visitation by Members of Parliament, senior officials of Dept. of Health to Huntingdon. {1121.01}

It is not clear what the Dawkins, Medicines, and Cohen Committees are, but in context they may be committees of the Royal College of Physicians or of another independent group interested in the toxicity of tobacco.

Dr. Hughes evidently wanted to draw the attention of senior management to these moves by ITG so that Mr. Finch might discuss them with a Mr. Carter, who was to be visiting soon. Dr. Hughes also suggests that Finch should not let it be known that B&W received information on ITG's plans through BAT:

During Mr. Carter's visit to Mr. Finch, it might be useful to Mr. Finch to obtain from Mr. Carter an overview of the policy in the health area. If this is considered worthwhile, it might be preferable not to mention that we receive through BAT broad reports of the I.T.G./Huntingdon situation. {1121.01}