on East Broadway should be signed within the month, says a spokesman for the institute.

Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul, a trustee of the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, said the partnership that owns the site beside Pembroke Hall has offered a 60-year lease.

Conditions to the lease agreement still being worked on are "not serious things at all''. he said.

His comments came after National Trust honorary life member Mrs. Thomas (Joyce) Hall had questioned Dr. Saul's assertion in The Royal Gazette on Monday that the site for the underwater institute was secured.

"I understand that this is not so,'' said Mrs. Hall, a former member of the Trust's Council.

The land is owned by Fidnat -- a partnership formed by the Bermuda National Trust Endowment Company Ltd. and Fidelity Real Estate Inc.

If the underwater museum had secured the land, then the Trust did not exercise the accountability to its membership referred to in another newspaper article on Monday, Mrs. Hall said.

"There was no general membership meeting of the National Trust to learn their views on allowing this property to be used by the underwater institute,'' she said.

Lawyer Mr. Alan Dunch, a director of the Bermuda National Trust Endowment Company, said talks aimed at negotiating a long-term lease for the site have been underway between Fidnat and the institute for months.

"There remain outstanding one or two important points,'' he said. "Assuming they are successfully resolved, then it is highly probable that a long-term lease will be entered into.'' Development of the East Broadway site is "a very important matter'', said Mrs. Hall, who is opposed to erection of the institute there.

"A great many members feel (the site) ought to be left absolutely alone as open space,'' she said. "The National Trust advocates open space. That is a very particular and important piece of open space.'' Development of the land would spoil the view of Hamilton Harbour and the Paget shoreline, she said. And the National Trust has opposed comparable near-shore developments, she added.

Trustees of the proposed underwater institute said the former warehouse site was never designated as open space. More than $1 million was raised for the project and they are confident $5 million will be raised by March 31. If that is accomplished, Fidelity International of the US is to match the amount.

The target date for completion is late 1994.

Mrs. Hall added she did not feel a plan to remove appointments to the National Trust council by the Bermuda and St. George's historical societies, the Audubon Society, the Garden Club, and Keep Bermuda Beautiful "would do anything to make the council more accountable to the general membership of the Trust.'' That plan is to be put to a vote at the Trust's annual general meeting on May 26.