it has to have facilities. If we are to encourage the businesses which provide good, clean jobs for the Bermudians we are so actively educating, then we must have facilities. Even to expand the insurance industry which we have already attracted, Bermuda has to provide high class services. These facilities must suit Bermuda as a service industry country and must attract good companies to come to Bermuda and contribute to Bermuda by providing jobs and buying services which keep Bermudians well employed.

As we see it, Bermuda has to try to provide these facilities within the framework of what is best for Bermuda's ecology. It is better to redevelop old sites and make them more desirable and more productive than to develop new sites. The Bermudiana is an old and delapidated site which is getting worse.

The City of Hamilton has objected to the plans for the Bermuda Financial Centre Ltd., including a new hotel, on the site of the Bermudiana. The Corporation objects to the developmemt's closeness to residential areas and the "staggering size'' of the office blocks. The Corporation wants to "maintain the integrity'' of the residential area along Woodbourne Avenue.

Has anyone in the Corporation looked at Woodbourne Avenue lately? We think there may be an element of jealousy in that objection because the site, while part of Hamilton for practical purposes, is just outside the City limits. Hamilton will have to bear some of the strain but it will receive none of the taxes. But then, its merchants stand to benefit from proximity.

We suspect that the published plans for the site may be another case of "asking for the moon so that you can settle for what you want and make everybody happy''. We too have some reservations about the size of the project which, unless Bermuda has a very large business boom, will disrupt existing office space. That is especially true since companies seem to take pride in rushing off to the newest and best buildings.

We also have some doubts about the need for a "town'' hotel with 300 rooms and doubts about the viability of such a hotel which is unlikely to attract a great many vacationers. A 300-room hotel might well have a very detrimental effect of the excellent premises now in the area, even though they once had the Bermudiana for competition. But there does appear to be a need for a small businessman's hotel with business facilities, early breakfast and a grill room.

Having said that, we do think that the Bermudiana Hotel site today is ideal for a business centre development. We have to face the fact that the Bermudiana is unlikely to operate again purely as a hotel site. For one thing, fashions have changed and people look first for resort hotels on the shore.

Very few vacationers want to be "in town''.

What we have at the Bermudiana is a large piece of already developed land in the centre of things which is an embarrassment. We think it can become a large and valuable part of the future of Bermuda. In developing the site Bermuda should take great care with such environmental concerns as sewage and car parking but we think those problems can be overcome. Surely it is sensible to put an abandoned eyesore to a use which benefits Bermudians.