major event scheduled to be held on-Island this November will not get off the ground.

It is understood that there is a great deal of hesitation surrounding the hosting of the World Conference of Mayors 1988 Convention in Bermuda between November 15 and 20.

A Press conference was originally scheduled for this week but was postponed out of respect for WCOM organiser Bonnie Marshall's bereavement.

Her three-month-old grandson Tyrian Lee Alexander Marshall died on Monday from causes that are under investigation, said Bermuda Forum spokesman Corin Smith yesterday.

The president of the African American Global Trade and Tourism Council left Bermuda on Monday to begin preparations for the 1998 Convention.

She was planning to return to Bermuda on Wednesday with a committee of Mayors but received the horrible news upon arriving in Atlanta and proceeded on to Kansas City to be with her family.

The Mayors' arrival has been delayed to May 12 and a Press conference will be held the following day.

The Royal Gazette understands that Ms Marshall's requests for sponsorship and free site visits to Island accommodations, restaurants and attractions has provoked concern amongst the community and the Department of Tourism as she is an unknown quantity. Questions about her could have been answered at the National Conference of Black Mayors in New Orleans in April but Tourism Department representatives did not attend the event.

And Ms Marshall has not had the chance to explain her full role in the organisation of the event and the press conference was set up to create an environment in which she could do that.

Meanwhile title sponsors Bermuda Forum will dedicate its sponsorship campaign to the memory of Ms Marshall's late grandson, an offer which has been accepted by the child's mother Mia Marshall.

Mr. Smith said: "In accordance with the initiative, the Bermuda Forum has undertaken to contribute part of the proceeds of the tile sponsorship drive to a scholarship fund in the name of Tyrian Lee Alexander Marshall.

"Bermudian friends of Ms Marshall are invited to gather at the Leopard's Club on Friday, May 8, 1998, to express their condolences.

"A bank account has been opened at the Bank of N.T. Butterfield in the name of Bermuda Forum -- Title Sponsorship Campaign for persons wishing to contribute to this initiative.''