Bermuda will receive "a land heritage'' when NAS Bermuda closes next September, says the National Trust director in St. Lucia.

And Government should be careful not to miss its opportunity -- as St. Lucia did, Mr. Robert Devaux told The Royal Gazette .

"Don't waste it. Don't squander it,'' Mr. Devaux said of the land the US will return to Bermuda. "Governments tend to see land as something to be exploited, to make a profit on.

"That's fine, but there is also another side to it. It's an opportunity,'' he said. "See what you can save. Once the development gets going, you cannot turn it back.

"We have wasted the opportunity here.'' On September 1, 1995, NAS Bermuda will be the last of eight Second World War US Navy bases on British soil to close. A utilisation committee is about to start meetings and make recommendations on how the land should be used.

All were leased for 99 years. But of the Bases opened in Newfoundland, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Antigua, Trinidad, British Guiana, the Bahamas, and Bermuda -- many of them in a deal that saw 50 ageing American destroyers sent to Britain -- most closed soon after the end of the war.

The US Naval Operations Base in Argentia, Newfoundland - which like Bermuda was separate from the destroyers deal -- is to close this fall amid complaints the Americans are leaving behind pollution.

In many places, the American presence was seen as a mixed blessing.

That was the case in St. Lucia, where positive and negative effects of the US presence remain, Mr. Devaux said.

In the 1960s, the Government was "literally handed over (an) incredible infrastructure'', including St. Jude's Hospital and Beane Field airstrip -- now the international Airport.

"That was one of the legacies of the US occupation which we are very grateful for.'' If any money was paid for what was left behind, it was "ridiculously small,'' he said. "It couldn't have been more than $50,000.'' The US Naval Air Station at Gros Islet in St. Lucia was only active during the war. It was later used as a Coast Guard station before it was returned to Government in about 1958.

Now, it is a tourism development project with a marina and several hotels "the fastest-growing area of St. Lucia,'' Mr. Devaux said.

But, "the horrors of the environmental impact are still evident today,'' he said.

The Americans tried to fill the Reduit Swamp, which was then the largest wetland on the Island. "They tried to pump sand into it for almost a year,'' Mr. Devaux said.

"All they were doing was surcharging 80 feet of silt'', which was pushed out to sea.

"When they realised they couldn't fill it, they gave up. What happened was very interesting -- the ecological backlash one needs to anticipate whenever anything is done.'' Of the five sandflys in St. Lucia, one was a "furious biter''. Its breeding ground was a brackish area between the low water and the moist area.

The attempt to fill the swamp increased the area of drier sand "tenfold'', and "the pest had an increased breeding area''.

The nearby St. Lucia Beach Hotel was built in 1962, and "by 1969, the hoteliers were threatening to pull out, it was so bad''.

They tried chemicals like DDT, which wiped out the local brown pelican population, but did not stop the sandfly.

They finally had to dredge out the area and build a marina.

The marina is successful, but the filter for the bay is gone, and the silt goes directly into the bay. Once clear, it is now always turbid.

"I don't swim there,'' Mr. Devaux said. "I haven't been in the water there since 1984. I have not put my body in that water, and I will not.'' A consultant was preparing a plan to rehabilitate the entire coast. "We have recognised it was a disaster,'' but "the horse is out of the stable,'' he said.

"We have to look for the horse, bring it back, and try to secure the lock.

That's where we're at now.'' Unlike St. David's Island, where large numbers of residents had to be relocated to make way for NAS Bermuda, owners of large estates were bought out in St. Lucia, Mr. Devaux said.

His uncle owned the land at Gros Islet in the north of St. Lucia. "He was paid 800 pounds for 221 acres of land which are now worth about $800 million,'' he said.

There was more disruption in the south of the Island, where Barbadian families had to be relocated for Beane Field. There, the Government has added to the original Base lands and created a 5,000-acre site for industrial development.

But little has happened.

The St. Lucia Government was "very cooperative'' with the Americans, and it was "a very lucrative time'' on the Island while the Bases were active.

However, "there were bad effects, as always,'' Mr. Devaux said.

The US got permission to pay a minimum wage of 50 cents a day, although the going rate was 36 cents. The disparity created a shortage of labour off the Base.

In Trinidad, land the Americans returned was not put to good use, either, journalist Mr. George John told The Royal Gazette .

The departure of the Americans from Trinidad was in sharp contrast to the US exit from Bermuda. While most Bermudians generally wanted NAS Bermuda to stay, Trinidad tried without success for several years to get the US Navy to leave.

Chaguaramos, the site of a large US Naval Operating Base in Trinidad, was chosen as the site for the capital of the Caribbean Federation formed in 1958.

But when Trinidad Premier Dr. Eric Williams asked the Americans to quit the Base, they refused. The Premier and his Cabinet led a march on Port of Spain, and there were petitions presented to the US Consul General and others. The United Kingdom supported the Americans in their refusal to budge.

By 1962, the Federation had collapsed, so plans to build a capital at Chaguaramos were dead. Earlier, in 1960, the Americans had agreed to give the land up in stages by 1977. When Trinidad went Independent in 1962, the return was expedited, and the Navy turned all its facilities over to the Government in 1967.

Mr. John said the Americans left many useful buildings, as well as building a road to a beach near Port of Spain that previously could only be reached on foot. The Americans had not paid rent, and Trinidad did not have to pay compensation.

"The Trinidad Government as part of their campaign said the Americans had had these Bases and not paid any rent, and should do something about it,'' Mr.

John said. In response, the Americans "built the John F. Kennedy Library at the university for having had use of the Base''.

Unlike Bermuda, the Americans did not operate the Airport in Trinidad, he said.

Today "the land has not been put to good use,'' Mr. John said. "The field was turned over to farmers. But the soil there isn't too good. It hasn't been much of a success.'' The area was used by "people who breed chickens, and so forth.'' A Chaguaramos Development Authority was created, but the Base had been "left almost as it was'', he said. A golf course was in use, and Macquerite Bay was again a public beach, but that was about all. The Trinidad Defence Force also used the area.