Former Premier Sir John Swan last night hit out at Britain's handling of Bermuda's foreign affairs.

Sir John, speaking to members of the Sandys Rotary Club, stressed that Bermuda should cease pleading with the US over the clean-up of their former military bases here.

Government officials say Britain has pledged to energetically pursue the US on the bases clean-up with Prime Minister Tony Blair promising to get involved if necessary.

"We have no beef with the Americans,'' he said. "Our beef is with the British for, number one, negotiating such a lousy treaty and, number two, they should have it rectified.

"They should rectify the conditions. And whether they get their money from the Americans is something that they should be doing not us, because they are still responsible, by the way, for external affairs.

"They should be getting that money from the Americans. But they should come in and rectify as a landlord, cleaning up the conditions left by a tenant they allowed to go on that property.'' Sir John pointed out that Bermuda had no part in the treaty the British arranged with the Americans, and were left as complete outsiders.

"During the 1940s when the bases arrangement were worked out we were a British colony. We didn't have any say in whether the Americans could come here. It was a part of the provision of services and goods by the Americans to the British for the exchange of bases.

"Bermuda was not a part of that process and we were told by the British at the time that all we had to do was accept it.'' Sir John claimed Bermuda "fought hard'', but the only concession that was granted was to have the Naval Annex in the Sound and the main base and airport in St. David's.

"They wanted to cut Bermuda in half up in Southampton,'' he said. "What we should be doing is calling on the British to negotiate to their embassy and through their relationship with America.

"Mr. Blair and Mr. Clinton are great friends and we should ask them to have a parley, not with Bermuda being present, but on what they're going to do with each other in respect to our bases.

"We don't need to take on the Americans. It doesn't mean we have to lie down and play dead, but we don't want to get in a fight that we don't need to be in.

"What we want to be able to do is to logically pursue Bermuda's best interest.'' Sir John also stressed that the US was Bermuda's "bread and butter'' and he warned that if Bermuda did not "act in a sophisticated and logical way to make them feel welcome'', it would be to Bermuda's detriment.

"We are in such a privileged position,'' he said. "We sit in such a preferred position but it can slip away from you just like that.'' Sir John also warned that Government's decision to argue the bases clean-up directly with the US will not likely see Bermuda really winning.

He pointed out that by forcing Britain to battle over it "we do not have to get involved and enthralled with the Americans who'll stand up and say, `yeah you want it yes we'll give it to you, but we'll give it to you on one condition, under reciprocity. Whatever we give you to clean up your bases we'll take from you somewhere else,''.

Sir John noted his personal experience in negotiating the US-Bermuda Tax Treaty.

"I know because in 1976 they gave us a tax treaty and then they slipped a piece of domestic legislation through which took the tax provisions from a double tax to a triple tax,'' he said.

"We had to work and it took us 18 months to get that piece of tax annulled because it was their way of saying we'll give it to you in one hand and take it away from you in the other.'' "We have to start to grow up and recognise that the world has changed and there is no longer that strategic position that we enjoyed in the Cold War, that we have to have a level of understanding a diplomacy of what is truly our position and that we must look to the individual or individuals who are responsible for doing something for us to get it done,'' he added.

Sir John also noted that his remarks were not said in an attempt to "beat up on the British'', but he said: "It is a realisation of a constitutional and international position.

"Our Constitution, which was passed in the British Parliament in 1966, is an order in council. They can change anything that affects our laws by taking it to the British Parliament and they can bypass our Parliament.'' ENVIRONMENT ENV MILITARY MIL