suggesting that Assistant Police Commissioners Mr. Wayne Perinchief and Mr.

Harold Moniz should be promoted into the controversial vacancies at the top of the Police Force. At the very best we see this as a PLP exercise in extreme cynicism.

Anyone with any familiarity with the thinking and the statements of the PLP will know that the PLP would never suggest Mr. Moniz if he were alone in consideration for promotion. It may be that the PLP has decided to undertake an exercise in deception by suggesting both men, thus hoping to make their stand a bit more widespread and a bit more palatable to the white community.

The PLP should not play politics of a devious kind with the Police Force because a well-run and respected Force is vital to Bermuda.

Given the history of the Police Force in recent years, we doubt that there is anyone in this community who will not see the PLP stand as devious at best. We all know that under ordinary circumstances if Mr. Moniz had been suggested for promotion, especially promotion to Commissioner, the PLP would have howled prejudice and race and everything else possible. There is simply no way the PLP would have settled for a man they are now supporting. That behaviour is cynical and it is wrong.

Aside from that, the PLP should know that political support for a candidate for a post which must be seen as non-political and independent can be fatal.

It could be that, in reality, the PLP does not want either man to be appointed and has decided with the utmost cynicism that PLP support will guarantee their rejection. The PLP must remember that its support for the late Mr. Justice Earle Seaton as Chief Justice made his appointment impossible.

This is, of course, all aside from the problems in the Police Force, many of which seem to have gone unaddressed. There is no doubt that we should be in a position to appoint a Commissioner and a Deputy Commissioner without going outside Bermuda. However, those doing the appraising and the appointing feel, honestly we think, that it is not possible or sensible at this time to appoint one of the serving Bermudian officers. We agree with anyone who says that it should be possible, but it is, apparently, not possible.

Whoever heads the Police Force has to be a good administrator as well as a good policeman and sometimes the two talents are not present in the same person. The amazing thing is that tiny Bermuda can and does produce talented and capable people for top jobs but, given the demands of a very sophisticated society and the large number of top people required in Bermuda, it will not always be possible.