Deputy Premier and Labour and Home Affairs Minister the Hon. J. Irving Pearman, and Environment Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons yesterday hit back at an editorial in The Royal Gazette which asked Sen. Simons to take a tough stand with the United States.

Many people fear that the Base will be left in a poor state unless the US Navy is pressurised to tidy up before leaving.

But the two ministers said the clean-up of the Base had already started more than a year ago.

Mr. Pearman is chairman of one of the committees dealing with the return of base lands to Bermuda. "The truth of the matter is that these negotiations are at an early stage,'' he said.

"All of those involved are still very much collecting information about what it is we are going to be negotiating about.'' US officials are being very co-operative with Government, according to the Deputy Premier, and have offered Bermuda every help in the "search for knowledge.'' But, he added: "We are still some distance from being able to take any kind of stand, tough or otherwise, on the environment.

"That is not to say that we have some naive belief that environmental matters will not need to be addressed, or are unimportant.

"On the contrary, the Premier himself spoke at a plenary session of how important the environmental condition of the Base will be in our talks, and I believe that both sides are very conscious of that.'' According to Sen. Simons, staff of the Ministry of the Environment began working with the US Navy's environmental officer on its environmental programme long before the Base closure was announced.

Sen. Simons said: "The US Navy has commissioned a number of reports by experts on such matters as air emissions, removal of underground storage tanks, safe drinking water, asbestos removal, hazardous waste management and removal, PCB removal, and landfill closure.

"All these reports have been made available to Bermuda and are currently being reviewed by a team of officers from the Ministry of the Environment, headed by Dr. Tom Sleeter, the environmental engineer.'' Dr. Sleeter holds a Master's degree and a PhD in environmental engineering from Harvard University.

Sen. Simons continued: "This review is the first step in the process. The team has already begun the second step, namely the physical inspection of the bases.

"If Dr. Sleeter should request independent verification by experts of his findings, Government will support that request.

"The US Navy has been carrying out active remediation of the bases for some time. They have shipped out asbestos, PCBs, waste oil and other hazardous material including, of course, armaments. There is a crew of 20 currently carrying out asbestos remediation work.'' Base commander pledges clean-up -- Page 5 THE HON. J. IRVING PEARMAN -- "Negotiations are at an early stage.''