the Island's hotels if Government does not force Grotto Bay to reintroduce mandatory gratuities must have caused some considerable concern throughout the hotel industry yesterday. The last thing Bermuda needs is a strike early in an uncertain season and the last thing workers need after a tough winter is a strike threat to drive away what visitors we can attract.

The threat seems to us to be based on a mistake. The Bermuda Industrial Union continues to state that somehow Government can act as a Big Brother enforcer when, in fact, Government is tied by the same system the Union finds frustrating. Government can no more tell Grotto Bay what to do than it can tell Ottiwell Simmons what to do although it would probably like to be able to keep both of them in line. The BIU officials know that Government cannot order the enforcement of the decision of the Essential Industries Disputes Board. It may be implying that Government can and should do so in order to embarrass Government and suggest that it is either a "do nothing'' Government or a friend of Grotto Bay.

We have said it before and we say it again. Grotto Bay cannot scoff at the Essential Industries Disputes Board which was established to try to avoid strikes and walk-outs in the hotels which only serve to drive away visitors.

Grotto Bay, largely Bermudian owned, is now outside the mainstream of the Hotel Employers of Bermuda and has decided to act as a renegade hotel and defy the findings of the Board. We agree with the President of the BIU, Mr.

Ottiwell Simmons, that, "The situation at the Grotto Bay is frustrating and demoralising for people who placed their faith and confidence in the hands of a legally constituted Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board.'' We think Government probably shares in the frustration because it had hoped the Board would provide a smooth industrial summer in the hotels in these difficult times. No Government likes action which worsens the economy by disrupting a basic industry. But Government is not the enforcer of the law in this democratic society, the courts are.

It is unreasonable to hotel management and to the general hotel workers to suggest industrial action in HEB hotels, which may not even agree with Grotto Bay, until recourse has been sought in the courts.

We know that court action takes a long time and can be very frustrating and we know that it is expensive but strikes are very frustrating for visitors, are very expensive for all Bermudians and Bermuda takes a long time to recover, if ever. We note that the BIU wants a "quick and speedy remedy to this situation'' but we don't think it is realistic to expect one.

The solution is for the BIU to take Grotto Bay to court and let the law decide. That is the least painful and least disruptive solution and the only sensible one for an industry that is already suffering.