Suggestions that late Tourism Minister David Allen was neglected by his PLP colleagues and friends in his dying days are patently false and possibly vindictive, Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott said yesterday.

Mr. Scott said he took great pains to abide by Mr. Allen's wishes and said claims made by Mr. Allen's friend, Shirley Rose Higgins, in yesterday's edition of The Mid-Ocean News were inaccurate. He said they were probably motivated by Government's refusal to foot the bill for her time in Bermuda following Mr. Allen's death.

And, Mr. Scott said Ms Higgins actually had to be stopped at the airport yesterday when she tried to leave the Island with artefacts from Mr. Allen's estate - including a totem pole which, she told The Mid-Ocean News, Mr. Scott made the dying man wait four days for when he asked it be brought to him.

Yesterday, Airport Operations confirmed this incident in a press statement.

"On the basis of information received (yesterday), departing passenger Ms Shirley Rose Higgins was interviewed by airport security and, as a result, certain items apparently destined for overseas were retained and have now been returned to their rightful owner," the statement said.

Ms Higgins made extensive comment to The Mid Ocean News, suggesting that many of Mr. Allen's PLP colleagues did not visit the dying man and that few people sent flowers or even called.

She also said there was no food in the refrigerator at the Tucker's Town executive rental home where Mr. Allen spent his last days and suggested the cancer he died from may have been related to eating monkey meat.

But yesterday Mr. Scott said the Mid-Ocean coverage was the last thing Mr. Allen would have wanted. He said he was amazed it would be sourced to someone who called herself a friend.

He expressed outrage that any of Mr. Allen's medical details were leaked and hotly rejected the suggestion Mr. Allen's cancer may have resulted from unknowingly eating monkey meat.

"There is no medical evidence of anything like that," Mr. Scott said. "At best that is a hypothesis from someone with absolutely no medical knowledge."

Mr. Scott said he felt compelled to go on record in reply because Ms Higgins' comments were so grossly inaccurate and he questioned her motives in light of her actions at the airport.

He said Mr. Allen was an "avid collector" who owned an extensive collection of artefacts most of which he kept in his home.

Mr. Allen expressly ordered that the only person allowed to enter his home was to be Mr. Scott - who, in addition to being his long-time friend is also the executor of his estate.

Mr. Scott claimed that Ms Higgins may have been disgruntled because she did not have access to the home or Mr. Allen's office where other items were kept.

"She made a comment that she wanted to go to his office to take artefacts but I said 'no', the offices were not to be made available to her," Mr. Scott said.

Mr. Allen did not leave any artefacts to Ms Higgins in his will which he recently dictated from his sickbed last week to replace a 30-year-old version, he added.

Rather the artefacts were to be properly catalogued and may be auctioned off.

Mr. Scott also said that he personally had taken Ms Higgins to buy food for the house for the nurses caring for Mr. Allen and herself.

Mr. Allen was not taking any food orally just prior to his death, he said, but food was purchased for Ms Higgins and her brother as well as medical staff caring for Mr. Allen.

"We purchased hundreds of dollars of groceries which we paid for," Mr. Scott said. "Ms Higgins did not offer to pay, nor did we expect her to."

Another of the travel writer's claims - that it took Mr. Scott four days to honour Mr. Allen's request that a totem pole be brought to him from a Government car - was also misleading, he said.

The totem pole was in GP9 (Mr. Allen's car), he said. And while Mr. Allen returned to Bermuda by air ambulance on a Friday, Mr. Scott said he was not informed that Mr. Allen wanted the totem pole until Sunday.

"I had staff go and open the car and take care that the artefact was provided to him that day," he said. "At most Mr. Allen waited a day and half but only hours after I was told of his request."

Mr. Scott admitted that during one conversation he told Ms Higgins he had a country to run when she made demands of him.

"It was said in the context of a conversation where she was basically asking why I wasn't spending 24 hours a day with him," he said.

"At that point in time I was the Acting Premier, holding for the Telecommunications Minister and holding the Tourism portfolio for Mr. Allen in addition to regular responsibility at Works and Engineering.

"I also had power of attorney for Mr. Allen and was serving as executor for his estate. There was business that had to be attended to."

Despite all his responsibilities, the only day Mr. Scott did not visit his friend was the Tuesday before he died, when Cabinet met.

And Mr. Scott said he thought it was distasteful that Ms Higgins brought the whole matter up in the house where Mr. Allen was lying just tens of feet away. "I really didn't want to upset him in any way," he said.

Mr. Allen also strictly instructed that only a few people be given access to the rental home where he spent his last days, Mr. Scott said countering Ms Higgins suggestions his colleagues did not call or come to visit.

"Minister Allen gave specific instructions who was to know where he would be staying on his return to Bermuda," he said.

"He said who could visit and there were only about a half a dozen people on that list."

But many others inquired after Mr. Allen and asked to visit him, Mr. Scott said.

"It is a misrepresentation to say folks didn't care or wish to visit him."

Attacking suggestions that he gave misleading statements about Mr. Allen's health after he returned to the Island, Mr. Scott sighed heavily.

He said on the first day of his return, his friend seemed stronger than he'd been in a long time.

"Minister Allen told me he wanted to fight that day. He had a group around him including his assistant David Dumont, (Tourism Director) Judith Hall-Bean and myself and he was issuing instructions.

"He gave Mr. Dumont specific instructions about a conference he wanted to attend in five weeks time and the specific air route he wanted.

"He certainly showed every indication of his former spirit that day," Mr. Scott said. "He was far stronger than he'd been in Boston. He said he wanted to fight it and make a stand and have everything done that could be done."

It was on that day that a medical conference was called, but sadly, Mr. Scott said that days later when it convened, Mr. Allen had taken a dramatic downturn.

While Ms Higgins questioned why Mr. Scott attended the conference, he told The Royal Gazette yesterday he was acting both as Mr. Allen's next of kin and held his power of attorney.

"I wanted to ensure that everything that could be done for him was being done," he said.

Mr. Scott also stressed that the doctors tending to Mr. Allen made sure he was not in any pain.

He suspects Ms Higgins negativity toward him arose after Mr. Allen's death.

Mr. Scott said while Ms. Higgins stayed with Mr. Allen in the rented executive home where the PLP placed him for his final days but after his death she moved to the Hamilton Princess.

"She asked who would be responsible for the bill," Mr. Scott said. "Government said it would not be our responsibility. It was not Tourism's responsibility. As far as I know she is a wealthy individual. For the duration of her stay in the country, it was expected she should pay her own bill."

Mr. Scott added he was extremely disheartened at the coverage in The Mid Ocean News in the immediate wake of his friend's funeral.

"It couldn't have been worse," he said. "It was not the Bermudian thing to expose this. That's the type of coverage US tabloids indulge in. I don't think Bermudians will take this kindly.

"It was not in good taste to run it hard on the heels of Mr. Allen's very dignified funeral. I thought that it was a travesty."