The ever combative Works and Engineering Minister Sen. David Burch exceeded himself last week, seemingly unable to walk down the street last week without getting into an argument with someone.

From his fight with the Auditor General over office space to a somewhat xenophobic speech in which he seemed to pin the blame for the housing crisis on poor foreign workers, to, finally, a fight with the Governor over the appointment of the new Commanding Officer of the Bermuda Regiment, Sen. Burch was engaged on all fronts.

It is not clear if the former soldier was acting on his own initiative or if he was being used as a stalking horse by others in the Government to float potentially controversial ideas.

Regardless, of all the fights Sen. Burch was involved in last week, the most serious and potentially damaging concerned the Regiment.

Sen. Burch framed his statement in the Senate on Wednesday as a matter of deep concern for the Regiment, in which he claimed the new CO, Lt. Col. William White, had been given the post although he was not the top performer in objective tests carried out prior to the announcement.

This, he said, had caused unease in the Officer's Mess, and it was possible that many officers would resign their commissions at the end of the year.

There appears is to be some basis for the concerns. Apparently Major Marc Telemaque ? the Permanent Secretary for Transport in his other life ? came first in tests carried out by a British Army officer earlier this year.

According to Sen. Burch, himself a former CO, that meant that he should automatically have received the job over Lt. Col. White, and presumably, Major Brian Gonsalves, who was second in command under recently retired CO Lt. Col. Edward Lamb.

So what happened? According to Sen. Burch, Garry Madeiros, the chairman of both the Defence Board and the Defence Promotions Board, somehow overruled the appointment and convinced the board to promote Lt. Col. White instead.

The reason for this, according to Sen. Burch, is that Mr. Madeiros is not an ex-military man but a civilian. This disqualifies him from being able to make judgments on military promotions, although it gives him seemingly magical powers to persuade the other members of the defence boards (many of whom are ex-soldiers) of the rightness of his cause.

Sen. Burch said this appointment, and the subsequent appointment of Lt. Col. White, reflects such poor judgment on the part of Governor Sir John Vereker that he should be recalled.

There does seem to be a widespread belief within the Regiment that the person who topped the tests would get the promotion. If this was not the case, then a very poor job was done of informing the candidates and the rest of the officers of this.

Common sense dictates that using these tests as the sole determinant for promotion would be foolish, since they might not take account of factors like past performance, past conduct and readiness to effect change.

It may be that Major Telemaque would still have won out on all of these factors, but it is unlikely the public will ever know, and it is dangerous to question a process without having been a part of it.

Mr. Madeiros has vigorously defended his own role and Public Safety Minister Randy Horton has thrown his support behind Lt. Col, White, thus setting two Cabinet Ministers against one another.

Mr. Madeiros has also, rightly, expressed disappointment that Sen. Burch chose to go public with his concerns when he, perhaps more than anyone, had the means to raise these concerns in private, both with Mr. Horton and Mr. Madeiros, and no doubt with the Governor as well.

There is a broader issue here. Governor Sir John Vereker has launched an extensive review of the Regiment's role and function, asking if its mission, which primarily concerns internal security and riot control, still fits.

These kinds of questions tend to cause discomfort, especially among the Regiment's leaders, and it may be that the current dispute is somehow connected to that argument.

One would assume that both Sir John, as Commander in Chief, and the Defence Board were keen to appoint the officer who best recognised the need for change, and one would assume that in their judgment, Lt. Col. White was that person.