cruise ship emergency exercise on Wednesday morning. From their point of view, Bermuda has been anxiously awaiting the return of cruise ship business after a tough winter. These days every dollar counts and it does not seem to have been necessary to interrupt the main shopping thoroughfare at the height of business.

To us this is another example of a fact we have been pointing out for some time. Bermuda does things to suit itself without considering the impact on its premier industry and without considering the convenience and comfort of visitors. Of course it is necessary to practise to ensure the safety of cruise passengers but there is a time and a place for everything and this was neither the time nor the place. Cruise ships berth at Dockyard and at Penno's Wharf, St. George's, and we could argue that they are probably more vulnerable to an emergency in those more isolated locations than at Number One Shed in Hamilton. An exercise at those locations would have been much less disruptive than on Front Street even though it would not have provided Hamilton traffic conditions. If it was thought necessary to practise in Hamilton on a large ship, we could have used a car boat in January. We could, of course, have used Hamilton in the evening after the shops shut. It does not seem to have been absolutely necessary to choose "prime time''.

We gather that passengers aboard the Westward were told that this was a drill but, basically, no one else was informed. The Chamber of Commerce seems to have been told but sworn to secrecy but the Cabinet Office was not told and Acting Premier the Hon. Ann Cartwright DeCouto was not told. This newspaper received a notice with an embargo to the morning of the exercise.

We hope this is not an instance of extraordinary arrogance where someone decided to have an emergency drill "like it or not''....or "We can do as we please.'' Aside from the problems created by the exercise, there is a basic flaw here.

It is very dangerous to carry out secret emergency drills. If a ship catches fire in Hamilton next week, the response will be limited by human nature which will say, "They must be at it again.'' It is never wise to have a realistic secret emergency because when you have a genuine emergency people simply do not respond, or, at the least, do not respond as you would like them to. Even military organisations shun secret practise because they know the dangers.

Aware simulation is considered sufficient practise. As an example, the Bermuda Regiment notifies the public of its exercises.

In any event, almost everything about the exercise seems to have been very ill advised and poorly thought out. We can only wonder who is making this kind of disruptive decision. We can't blame Government this time because it was not told.