Status is becoming a political issue. We have no doubt that the Government responded to public pressure and did what it thought people wanted by keeping Bermuda for Bermudians. For years Government "took licks'' for allowing too many "foreigners'' into Bermuda and for granting too many people Bermuda Status.

Government was constantly criticised by some vocal members of the public for being too liberal with the grant of Status and too generous with work permits for non-Bermudians. Government listened and responded by taking a tough line on work permits and on status because it seemed that stand was what people wanted. It was not Government's fault. It was very clear that the people wanted an exclusionary policy. On the other hand, many businesses complained about Government's work permit policy because they felt the policy was so restrictive that it damaged their efficiency by depriving them of non-Bermudian staff they saw as essential. But Government, which is so often accused of being one and the same with business, held the line against the requests from business for wider work permits because it thought it was responding to the wishes of the people.

The Progressive Labour Party and its followers were the greatest advocates of keeping non-Bermudians out of Bermuda. The PLP repeatedly complained that work permits deprived Bermudians of jobs and that there should be no status. The PLP repeatedly ignored the need for trained people to run Bermuda's complex economy which makes Bermuda rich and repeatedly ignored the human rights of people resident in Bermuda for many years.

The PLP's followers formed the organisation Bermuda for Bermudians.

Now we have the PLP, which has never before befriended the Portuguese, changing its exclusionist tune and calling for a new immigration policy. We have to think that the PLP is as exclusionist as ever and simply hopes to make political capital out of the Portuguese issue.

The Portuguese, of course, have to be very careful. They should not be fooled.

The PLP is not their friend and cannot afford to be because it is too closely allied with the Bermuda Industrial Union. When the Portuguese-Bermudian Organisation's Mr. John Amaral says of the Portuguese, "Whichever party supports our case, I think that's the party we're going to be voting for '', he must know that the Portuguese could end up with no friends at all.

We believe that it is immoral for any country to use the 20 best years of people's lives, Portuguese or anyone else, and then send them back, children in tow, to a place which is no longer their home. That kind of action is unjust and unfair. However, it is an action which the Bermudian public has, until recently, given every appearance of supporting. To say that people knew the system before they came to Bermuda and stayed for 20 years is to ignore the fact that Bermuda invited the people here to do jobs Bermudians could not or would not do and it is to ignore the fact that without non-Bermudian workers Bermudians in general would be poorer today.

None of this is to say that non-Bermudians should take jobs from Bermudians but it is to say that having needed non-Bermudian workers and used them for 20 or more years Bermuda has no moral right to discard them at will. Bermuda does have a self-generated legal right but it does not have a moral right.

In the meantime it is sad to see the Portuguese, who have made an enormous contribution to Bermuda and to Bermudians, become a very clouded political issue.

Government, of course, can't win this one.