contain the seeds of its own possible downfall.

Conde Nast Traveller, one of the most influential travel magazines, will hit newstands next month with a story that hints of a dark undercurrent beneath the Island's calm, civil surface.

Writer Peter Kaplan, who visited the Island in June after a 23-year absence, found it to be as beautiful as ever.

Brilliant flowers, the charming 20 mph speed limit, colours of "hallucinogenic brightness'' and gorgeous beaches all work together to uphold the classic image of Bermuda.

Mr. Kaplan sees the Island as calm, quiescent and clean -- a "populated paradise''.

"But calm in any place, no matter how beautiful, is a veneer, and a tempest can rise up at any time,'' he writes.

Mr. Kaplan borrows heavily from Shakespeare's characters in The Tempest to create a metaphor for modern Bermuda.

Prospero, he recalls, "ruled his Island with an unchallenged hand.'' All others bowed to his order.

"That sense of order persists,'' he writes. "Bermuda is, feels to be, a place under control -- someone's control.

"There is little wildness here. Yet there is a stirring under the surface of the Island, a weirdness in the wind ...'' The Island's early years as a destination for travellers seeking respite from the world saw it become "one of the great loci of leisure, almost synonymous with a certain kind of transporting vacation, the kind that the overworked and overpressured need ...'' Mr. Kaplan indicates the Island's natural beauty remains unimpaired. "It's primal without being primitive,'' he said. "From one end of the Island to the other, it is an island of truly majestic beaches overseen by green hills, of palms and coves ... of unexplored caves and well cultivated farms.'' But he uses Independent MP Mr. Stuart Hayward to paint a different picture.

"Bermuda,'' the MP told the magazine, "is an Island in crises ... And we've got a government that is still looking at expansion. Perhaps half the government has interests in development.

"Bermuda used to be the isles of rest. Now it's the isles of stress.'' Mr.

Kaplan points out that "not all Bermudians are as convinced of the government's disinterest.'' He cites Government's new development plan with its emphasis on conservation, and notes it was drafted as a response to an overdevelopment crisis.

Mr. Hayward is also used to suggest that the Island's problems go to the basic conduct of its inhabitants.

" `Bermuda,' he told Mr. Kaplan, `is probably the number one polluter on the globe' per capita and has developed itself to the point beyond which there is practically nowhere else to develop.'' Mr. Kaplan taps into the current controversy over the Elbow Beach Hotel expansion -- and suggests it is part of a historical continuum of big overseas investors having their way with the Island.

He said the plan, as it stands, would ruin the view from Horizons and clog the roads and crowd the beach.

Tourism Minister the Hon. C.V. (Jim) Woolridge is quoted speaking in the hotel's defence.

"Poor Wilhelm Sack,'' is all Mr. Kaplan can write of the Horizons manager's objection to the plan.

Mr. Kaplan sees the Island living with a dilemma that will always pit the forces of development against the forces of conservation. And he suggests that economic necessity, and privilege, will always be given the nod.

In the end, the disputes are the Island's own.

"Bermuda practically begged them to come in and embrace it ... ,'' Mr.

Kaplan writes of developers who helped build the modern tourism industry.