Outgoing Premier Dr. Ewart Brown was able to secure one parting gift for Bermuda last week when US Attorney General Eric Holder, although it seems it was an unexpected one. Asked by The Royal Gazette after meeting with Bermuda leaders if he considered Bermuda to be a tax haven, Mr. Holder waffled for a bit and then said: "... I think that I wouldn't go as far as that and characterise Bermuda as a tax haven."

Mr. Holder may have just been trying to be polite to his host, and he may later try to "clarify" his comments since they are at some variance with the views of the White House and some Democrats in Congress.

But the statement is on the record and permanent now, and that's a useful thing for Bermuda to have as it continues its efforts to counter anti-Bermuda tax initiatives in the US Congress and elsewhere. At first glance, that seems to have been the most concrete achievement of Mr. Holder's flying visit.

Mr. Holder said Dr. Brown had "very forcefully" pressed Bermuda's case on getting funding for the Morgan's Point clean-up.

Although Mr. Holder said he had "shared privately my views with the Premier as to how the United States might help in that regard", no details on that were forthcoming.

Although those thoughts may bear fruit later, it seems unlikely that the US will do anything to provide direct assistance. That's because Bermuda has already accepted one deal, for $11 million, and more importantly because the US remains very reluctant to accept responsibility for environmental damage at any of its former overseas bases.

That unwillingness has nothing to do with Bermuda and everything to do with the huge numbers of bases the US operated everywhere from Germany to the Philippines during the Cold War. Accepting responsibility for cleaning up a former base in Bermuda would open up enormous liabilities for the US everywhere.

Mr. Holder appeared to spend a good deal of time in his visit discussing the Island's crime problem, and that is good news too. Indirectly, Bermuda also learned of the creation of the "National Task Force" which turned out to be a cross-ministry team dealing with crime.

That committee's appointment is a welcome one, if it's able to take a holistic approach to the problem, and can come up with solutions that not only deal with the investigation and prosecution of crime, but with the conditions that give rise to crime.

Again, it is not clear what assistance or support the US can give Bermuda, but it is clear that the help of the US is needed in a multiplicity of ways. Most drugs and guns enter Bermuda via the US, and for those who may come up from the Caribbean, the best hopes of interdiction lie in collaboration with the US authorities. Similarly, it seems clear that there are growing ties between Bermudian and US gangs where the help of the US is needed.

And Bermuda simply does not have all the resources to deal with the current crime wave. Not only is technical support such as forensics needed, but so is technical advice, and in some cases manpower. It is to be hoped that all these points were made as forcefully to Mr. Holder as the case for cleaning up Morgan's Point was. In many ways, it's a more pressing issue.