development business by selling 39 condominiums to non-Bermudians will be disturbing to a great many Bermudians. It is, as we see it, no different from the Tucker's Town Catchment Hill scheme where non-Bermudians want to develop Bermudian real estate to their benefit and not really to Bermuda's benefit.

Elbow Beach is in the hotel business. It is not in the property development business and should not start at this late stage to pretend that it needs to sell luxury condos to support its hotel operation. Elbow Beach is the oldest of Bermuda's large hotels. It certainly needed upgrading and, while we have some problems with the way the upgrading was done, upgrading older hotels is desirable and to be encouraged. Outsiders using hotel properties to speculate in Bermudian real estate and hotel operations to speculate in Bermudian real estate is not to be encouraged.

Foreign hotel ownership has a long history in Bermuda and often has been in the interest of Bermudians. Foreign speculation in property development is not in the best interests of Bermudians. Make no mistake, foreign speculation will be supported by some Bermudians who want a dollar today and care little about the future, and it will be touted by local real estate agents because, generally, they want any buck they can get.

The new owners of the Elbow Beach and their local representatives must not be allowed to demand licence to do as they please OR ELSE... Or else what? This is a hard time to take a tough line but Bermuda cannot allow itself to be blackmailed by foreign hotel owners into doing things against Bermuda's interests. And, make no mistake, Elbow's demands that it receive permission to do just as it pleases very soon OR ELSE, and the statements that Elbow Beach will not be a Ritz-Carlton, are threats and pressure to the point of blackmail, especially political blackmail because they imply that to refuse Elbow Beach all it wishes is to deny Bermudians cash in a recession. The foreign ownership of Elbow Beach is tampering in Bermuda's internal affairs and is now doing so with the help of the Minister of Tourism, the Hon. C.V.

(Jim) Woolridge who has publicly supported the elaborate Elbow scheme.

We have some serious questions about the wisdom of Mr. Woolridge's support for this scheme. He has violated the doctrine of collective responsibility under which Sir John Swan's Government functions. In the scheme of things, Environment Minister the Hon. Ann Cartwright DeCouto has quasi-judicial control if the Elbow Beach scheme is appealed to her. She is now stumped because the Tourism Minister has announced his position publicly and supports a scheme she may have to oppose. The Cabinet cannot oppose the scheme collectively because Mr. Woolridge has supported the scheme. That is a serious violation by Mr. Woolridge of the responsibility any minister has to the rest of his Cabinet colleagues.

Mr. Woolridge is well known to be a renegade outsider in the Swan Government and often at odds with the Premier but this is defiant of the whole Cabinet.

His support for Elbow Beach makes any Cabinet decision suspect if it is made with him present. That is a mess the Country did not need.