A story in last Thursday's newspaper incorrectly reported realtor Mr. Kevin Petty resigning from the Chamber of Commerce over the proposed merger between the Bank of Bermuda and L.P. Gutteridge. Mr. Petty said he had never opposed the proposed merger.

The Chamber of Commerce is hoping to resolve problems that led to the resignations of a quarter of its real estate committee in recent weeks.

A meeting of realtors next week will consider ways of dealing with the controversial issue of the merger of the property divisions of the Bank of Bermuda and L.P. Gutteridge to form Bermuda Home.

A meeting last week led to the resignation of committee chairman Mr. Thomas B.

Moss and deputy chairman Mr. Ted Gauntlett. Mr. Kevin Petty of Somers Realty resigned some weeks ago.

While Mr. Moss said he did not resign over the Bermuda Home affair, he quit the day after last week's meeting.

He said: "The meeting was a fiasco, to be quite frank. Basically when people on the committee started accusing me of not properly representing the Chamber to Government then I took exception.

Personalities should not have come into this meeting, but I decided to step down and not to bother with it any longer. To be frank it was consuming a lot of time.

"It was really nothing to do with Bermuda Home, that is an entity in itself.'' Mr. Gauntlett said it was the Bermuda Home issue that forced his resignation, and Mr. Petty resigned soon after the initial announcement of the merger.

It means that from an original committee of 11, representing the real estate division, only seven remain as one member died recently.

President of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Louis Mowbray said: "Situations arise where one side of the members of the Chamber is at odds with another side. The role of the Chamber is to react to this, examine the issues and hopefully find a solution for the parties.'' Being a senior executive of the Bank of Bermuda Mr. Mowbray could not chair last week's meeting. That was left to an executive of the Chamber, Mr. Buddy Franklin.

Mr. Mowbray stressed: "This was not a mass resignation. It is regrettable that people feel so strongly about these issues. We just hope that a solution will be found.

"The first meeting explored the issues and the meeting next week will give the members a chance to give some feedback and explain exactly what their problems are. We must look at approaches to solving those problems.'' All three resigning members are expected to attend next week's meeting.