Former Editor of The Royal Gazette David L. White yesterday gave a veiled warning about the style Premier Jennifer Smith has adopted with the media.

Noting Ms Smith's plan to limit her interviews with the Press and use the House of Assembly and Senate debates to reach the people, Mr. White told Hamilton Lions: "I wonder after all the years she's been in the House if she's ever actually listened to the debate.

"The debates are so bad that quite frankly you can hardly bear to listen to them. So I can't imagine that these are going to give her a great deal of service in any political sense.

"I also think that before she begins to complain about the Press, she should talk to some of the people in this country that spent a great deal of time being at war with the Press.'' Mr. White then pointed out instances where such wars resulted in the downfall of the warriors.

"I honestly believe that Jim Woolridge would have been a Premier of Bermuda were it not for The Royal Gazette ,'' he said. Mr. White's comments were part of a speech, during the Hamilton Lions' weekly luncheon at M.R. Onions Restaurant, on the power of the Press and in particular, The Royal Gazette .

" The Royal Gazette has taken the lead on a tremendous number of social causes in this country, and much more forcefully than many of the politicians,'' he said.

He also talked about the "onerous task'' the paper finds itself in as the Island's only daily.

" The Gazette sets the agenda for this country,'' Mr. White said. "I believe that what The Gazette focuses on becomes the focus of the country. What it doesn't, doesn't. It is easy to focus on the wrong thing.'' At the helm of The Royal Gazette for more 20 years, Mr. White said that since his retirement in December, he has "become aware of a public perception in the Country that there is something wrong with the Press''.

"It is fashionable for politicians to have something to complain about and that something, almost universally, turns out to be the media,'' he said.