once the US Naval Air Station is closed, the Consul General to Bermuda said this week.

Speaking to the Hamilton Rotary Club, Mr. Joseph O'Neill said he knew there was a rumour that Bermudians flying to the United States after the Base closed would no longer have Customs pre-clearance at the Civil Air Terminal.

"That is not true,'' Mr. O'Neill said. American Customs and Immigration officers posted in Bermuda would "stay as long as you let them. I hope you want them to stay here.'' The American Navy, which runs the Civil Air Terminal as part of its Base operation, is withdrawing from Bermuda on September 1, 1995. But American Customs and Immigration officers who were not part of the Navy would not be affected by the change, he said.

Mr. O'Neill, who arrived in February on a temporary posting, gave a brief and mostly lighthearted address to Rotary, meeting for lunch at the Hamilton Princess.

Many Bermudians were unaware of the long history of close ties with the US, he said.

He noted that by sending a ship with supplies to Jamestown in the early 1600s, Bermuda became "the first ones and probably the only ones to grant the US aid.'' Just prior to and during the Revolutionary War, Americans purchased gunpowder and shot in Bermuda, Mr. O'Neill said. King George III was not happy about that. Nor did he like "the way we returned it to him,'' he quipped.

During the Civil War, Americans were impressed with Bermuda's "impartiality'' in providing arms to both sides, Mr. O'Neill said.

While Mr. O'Neill is a high-ranking career foreign service officer, Bermuda is one of the few foreign postings where the Americans send a political appointee, rather than a career diplomat. Bermuda is still waiting for the White House to name a successor to Mr. Ebersole Gaines, who left early in 1993.

"You will be given a fine officer soon, to be chosen at the highest level of the US Government,'' Mr. O'Neill said. "I'm sure he's going to be happy here.

I know I am.'' US CONSUL GENERAL -- Mr. Joseph O'Neill.