restaurants would not stop with McDonald's, they have it in the advertisements placed by Domino's Pizza. As we see it, Bermuda is a prime and untouched market for the chains and if they can they will move in and swamp small local restaurants.

This means that the legal battle going on over McDonald's takes on critical importance to the future of Bermuda and Bermudians. Admitting these chains to Bermuda would lower the tone of the entire Country just at a time when Monitor is telling us that we can revive tourism with up-market niche visitors. One of the things those visitors like most about Bermuda is the absence of the kind of chains they find at home.

Works and Engineering Minister and anti-franchise campaigner C.V. (Jim) Woolridge was quoted yesterday as saying, "Everything Bermudian is disappearing. The bill my friends and I were promoting -- The Prohibited Restaurants act -- was aimed at saving Bermudian restaurants of which more and more are closing.'' In our view Mr. Woolridge is correct.

Let's get rid of a few of the myths about these chains. It is important for Bermudians to remember that if the chains do arrive, they will provide jobs, probably for those people out of a job because the chains will force Bermudian restaurants out of business, but they will pay the lowest possible wages.

Those who think that the chains will provide an inexpensive meal should also think again. Their prices will not in any way resemble those advertised on American television, they can't given Bermuda's built-in costs.

Domino's did not wait for the result of the court appeals but, make no mistake, others are waiting and if chains are ruled legal in Bermuda the applications will flood in.

Both the City of Hamilton and the Town of St. George are on record as not wanting chains within their confines. That is and is not a good thing. It would probably result in the chains dotting the countryside and we already know that McDonald's wants to locate at the Airport, thus giving our visitors an unpleasant first and last impression of Bermuda.

Where would these chains go? Somerset village which unlike the city and the town has no corporation to keep them out; Riddell's Bay perhaps; South Shore in the area of the beaches; Collector's Hill or Devil's Hole; Shelly Bay Plaza maybe; Flatts? The more widespread they become the more destructive they will be. Once there was some thinking that they might all be hidden away in one area on the Base Lands and that is still a possibility. As a last resort if they are ruled legal it might be possible to use or to change the Planning laws to confine them together in one small place.

We hope that those politicians who have so correctly opposed McDonald's are now giving hard thought to what to do if the courts rule in favour of franchises. The courts are only concerned with the law and not with Bermuda's ecology or Bermuda's visitor future but politicians must be.