resignation as National Trust director last month.

In an interview with The Royal Gazette , Mr. McKittrick said he regrets that his departure from the organisation preceded the formation of a high-powered committee to review all aspects of Trust operations.

He said he was not given a chance in 21 months on the job to come to grips with the kind of problems the committee of past Trust presidents is now looking at.

And he said that a persistent lack of confidence in Trust workers by members of its governing council hampered their work.

Mr. McKittrick said he did not want his comments to hurt the Trust. "The Trust needs public sympathy, not a public smear,'' he said. "The Trust is an amazing organisation. I hope it's always looked at as a national body and not something for a few people who want to do something.'' Mr. McKittrick agreed that he could be seen as "the fall guy'' for a larger malaise affecting the overall management of the Trust.

Three weeks ago, the Trust council appointed a committee of past presidents.

Interviews this week revealed their assignment was to recommend ways to get control of operations that have grown beyond the Trust's management structure.

"We're very much like a teenager whose pants and shirt have become too short,'' one past president said. "It's time we got a new suit of clothes.'' The committee is headed by Lt. Col Michael Darling and includes Mr. John Ellison, the Hon. Gerald Simons MP, Mr. Andrew Trimingham, Mr. Michael King and Mr. Dennis Sherwin.

Mr. McKittrick suggested the committee's formation was something that sprung from events surrounding his departure and not the result of long-term planning.

"If the council had taken the time to think about these things, maybe I would still be there,'' he said. "I spent a lot of my time there trying to get them to think about where we were going.

"This is not something that can be defined overnight. To think the job can be fulfilled in 21 months, it's not possible for one person.'' When Mr. McKittrick resigned as director, he said he was doing so because of "irreconcilable differences.'' It is understood his departure was the last act in a long-running conflict with members of the Trust's council.

Mr. McKittrick's comments yesterday indicated that a major irritation may have been due to interference from above.

"If you hire a professional body of people, you've got to have some faith in them,'' he said. "You've got to try and allow them to do something. If your volunteer bodies within the Trust say that `you can't do this, you can't do that' everyday, then the work of the Trust is not going to get done.'' Mr. McKittrick suggested that lines of authority had become unclear.

He said if he had a chance to do anything over again he would make sure individual roles and responsibilities were understood by everyone.

"I think if that had been done from day one, there would have been a big difference,'' he said.

Mr. McKittrick said he could have fought what amounted to a forced resignation.

"But the Trust needs help and loving care, if only because it's trying to raise important money through a public drive,'' he said.

In the weeks following his resignation, he said he was depressed.

"I sacrificed a lot to get that job,'' he said, adding later that he had left a $68,000 a year school principal's post for the $50,000 director's job.

Mr. McKittrick said he is taking a few months off to collect himself and work around the house and then will seek work.

"Many people have phoned to give me support,'' he said. "Even from the United Bermuda Party caucus, saying that I'd been doing a good thing. I am very happy with what I did.''