Development Applications Board today. It has to strike us as strange that the hearing would be adjourned and then arranged for the busiest day of the Queen's visit. However, we do note that the hearing will adjourn early so DAB members can attend Queen's visit functions in which they are involved.

Anyone who recalls the incinerator hearings in the late 1980s will know that the DAB has a strong tradition of making independent decisions in the best interests of Bermuda without regard to the identities of those making planning applications.

As we see it, that tradition will again be tested today. Judging by Letters to the Editor this will be one of the most contentious decisions ever made by the DAB. It is, of course, one of those situations where they will be damned if they do and damned if they don't. Part of that problem arises from the public and political clout of the people assembled on the board of the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute. Inevitably it will be thought by many people that they have brought pressure to bear on the DAB and on Government in favour of building the BUEI on the old Butterfield property at East Broadway. Because of that fact, it seems to us that the DAB has to be doubly sure that their decision is openly arrived at.

There does not seem to be anyone who is opposed to the idea of the BUEI. Many people see it as a valuable addition to Bermuda and to tourism. Others see it as an overdue celebration of Bermuda's underwater history. It seems to us that if the Institute had been proposed for another location such as Dockyard it would have been warmly welcomed.

The problems arrive because of the BUEI committee's insistence on using the old Butterfield warehouse site at East Broadway. The Bermuda National Trust and many private individuals see that site as unsuitable for a building of the size and height proposed. However, it is fair to say that the BUEI has reduced both the size and height of the proposed building. There are also many people who are concerned about water flow to the Foot of the Lane, traffic problems at East Broadway caused by the Institute and site coverage by the building, its parking areas and roads.

There are also people who see the creation of this large charity building at East Broadway as the opening of the door to the development of buildings close to the concept of Cabinet Towers from the Institute westward to the container dock. They find that possibility alarming.

There seems now to be a general assumption that this project will go ahead no matter how strong the objections. There is growing opinion that it has already been decided that the BUEI will be built and that it will be built on that East Broadway site . . . no matter what. What concerns us is that the DAB should function openly and fairly and make a just decision based on good information. Bermuda has a right to ask that.