conservationists by trying to ram a highly controversial bill through the House of Assembly. One row after another has disrupted the Saul Government to the point where sensible people want nothing more than for the Government to settle down and get on with running the Country.

Now the Premier, who is well known to be a wreck diver, and the Cabinet, which must know that the last thing the Government needs is another row, are willing to rush ahead with the new laws on shipwrecks. The hurry, which does not allow concerned groups like the Maritime Museum and the National Trust to study the bill, much less protest effectively, makes no sense. Government knows that when it rushes controversial legislation it is bound to arouse suspicion.

Government is now trying to hide behind statements that the new Historic Wreck Act increases wreck protection. That is what Finance Minister Grant Gibbons has been saying. Indeed that seems to be true but it is not an answer. The new act, like the old 1959 Wreck and Salvage Act, still gives treasure divers the upper hand. And there is something of a smell about the fact that a 1989 act which was drafted but never passed because the Government and the ministers changed, provided much more protection and removed the wrecks from the Finance Ministry to the Community and Cultural Affairs Ministry. At that time Dr.

David Saul, who is now Premier, became Minister of Finance. The act which would have protected wrecks died.

There has to be a national understanding that the wrecks belong to the people of Bermuda and not to treasure hunters. Many of the wrecks are of great historic importance and should not be hacksawed apart by individuals who want bits and pieces to put in their home displays. Just because wrecks are under the sea does not make them any less a part of our national heritage. If people went about chopping bits off Bermuda's historic buildings to display them in their living rooms, there would be a national outcry. Historic wrecks are, or should be, no different.

If divers want to go down and look at the wrecks that's quite acceptable. But we need a law which says "look but do not touch''. Any examination of the wrecks should not be done by amateur treasure hunters but only by trained marine archaeologists.

The situation is complicated and exacerbated by the fact that so many senior members of the Government and the United Bermuda Party, including the Premier, are so heavily involved in the controversial Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute which is now looming over Crow Lane. The fact that this bill is being rushed forward at a time when the BUEI is preparing to open is bound to cause suspicion.

To allay that suspicion and to let the public have a say, Government should delay debate on the bill until concerned groups and concerned individuals can have their input. This is a democracy. At the same time, the BUEI should present to the public a collections policy which would not allow the exhibition of improperly collected artifacts from Bermuda's waters or any other waters.