Meeting in Canada to argue Bermuda's case against being placed on an international financial hit list.

He is going to take the opportunity, off the agenda of the conference, to talk with British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown about Bermuda and some of the issues we are facing due to the United Kingdom's association with the European Union and because of the initiative toward a financial "bad list'' being posed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Both issues could have very serious consequences for Bermuda.

Bermuda has been host to the Finance Ministers' conference on two previous occasions, the last time two years ago when Dr. Gibbons was the host, and this is the fourth meeting Dr. Gibbons will attend as Bermuda's Finance Minister.

As a result, he knows, and is known by, many of the top people at the conference which starts in Ottawa today.

Dr. Gibbons has said the Finance Ministers and their staffs have a good impression of how well Bermuda is run because we ran one of the better Finance Ministers' conferences in recent memory. That fact is very beneficial when Bermuda goes to make its case that its business is well run and that it is not some minor tax haven.

Sometimes there is criticism of the cost of conferences in Bermuda and of the trips to these conferences taken by various ministers but this is a major example of just how important being welcoming and being known can be to Bermuda.

Dr. Gibbons said in a story in this newspaper yesterday that because of his attendance at these meetings, he has a working relationship with the people attending the meeting and that will allow him to reinforce the facts about Bermuda.

Fifty-five Commonwealth Ministers of Finance will attend the annual meeting in the Canadian city. In addition, top United Kingdom civil servants who are in the process of drawing up a new agreement between Britain and the remaining dependent territories will also be there.

Because we have welcomed the conference to Bermuda in the past and because Dr.

Gibbons is known to top people, tiny Bermuda will have the entree to get its point across to the "big boys''. Background and experience count for a great deal at this kind of meeting and simply being known to the players is a huge boost. Dr. Gibbons is now in an ideal position to get to the people who count and to do his best for Bermuda.

Dr. Gibbons has been quoted as saying: "In many respects, this is all part of the increasing role what might be called economic foreign policy is playing for Bermuda.'' More and more because of its success and its position as an international insurance centre, tiny Bermuda no longer exists in isolation and is being called on to defend itself and take its place in the international economic world. In very many ways that indicates how well Bermuda has done but it means that Bermuda must have experienced and very capable people to conduct its business.