Feelings ran high at a public meeting this week when it was alleged that the service in the Rhodesian Police Force of Bermuda's deputy commissioner designate had been deleted from his resume for "sinister reasons.'' But Deputy Governor Mr. Peter Willis moved quickly to quash these allegations.

"Mr. Mylod's curriculum vitae shows his employment with the British Police Service,'' he said.

"That was relevant for his selection for this job. It is by no means an exhaustive list.'' Mr. Willis confirmed that Mr. Mylod did serve in Northern Rhodesia as a training officer in the early 1960s before the country became independent Zimbabwe.

His job involved monitoring the recruitment of Africans into the Police force.

Mr. Mylod also had a stint in the navy and worked in the private sector.

In the House of Assembly yesterday, Shadow Delegated Affairs Minister Mrs.

Lois Browne Evans, asked Labour and Home Affairs Minister the Hon. John Irving Pearman if he had noticed "a gap of eight to 10 years'' in Mr. Mylod's curriculum vitae.

"I have no response to that question,'' Mr. Pearman said. "I don't see how it's possible for me to respond to someone's curriculum vitae.'' However, during a heated question-and-answer session at a forum discussing the issue of Policing in Bermuda at the Blue Waters Anglers club, Mr. Pearman said Mr. Mylod did serve in Zimbabwe, assisting the newly-independent country's Police Force to weather the transition from colonial rule.

But Shadow Minister of Labour and Home Affairs Mr. Alex Scott said Mr. Mylod's resume began when he was 27 and charged that the previous years had been deleted for a reason.

At the meeting, a panel including retired Police sergeant Mr. Neville Darrell, National Liberal Party member Ms Deborah Saltus, lawyer Mr. Rod Attride-Stirling, Mr. Pearman and Mr. Scott addressed a vocal audience of more than 50 people.

Mr. Attride-Stirling said Bermuda may be importing prejudice instead of expertise as it looks to fill the two top posts in the Police Service with officers from Britain.

Quoting from several British newspapers Mr. Attride-Stirling said that racism was an intractable problem in Britain with allegations of Police harassment and over-policing in the black communities.

And he said Government's decision to bring in the officers was an example of its own failure to adequately prepare Bermudians to take over.

However, Ms Saltus said the decision to go abroad for candidates "could in fact be a good one as well as a bad one.'' Advantages she said, came from the possibility of further advancement along international standards and improved management techniques for senior police officers.

But Ms Saltus questioned whether the two officers would in fact be sent back to England at the end of their contracts.

"Will the Government or the Governor of Bermuda state that they have not found a suitable replacement and these officers remain here for a longer period?'' Mr. Scott meantime, said that the colonial British policy of policing strangers with strangers was at the heart of many of the problems Bermuda has experienced.

"I think that we don't have to look at our Police Force for what went wrong.

We may have to look at the people responsible for the Police Force to find out what really went wrong.'' Mr. Scott said that Police officers had often received "confused and mixed directions'' but this was not surprising because "we are a colony that is trying to become a country.'' Most questions were directed at Mr. Pearman who was often derided as he attempted to respond.

However he was steadfast in his insistence that the hirings were in Bermuda's best interest.