political party functions on the same day.

Congressman Donald M. Payne, chairman of the US Congressional Black Caucus, is scheduled to speak at a Progressive Labour Party banquet on November 18.

And New York City Police Chief William Bratton is to address a luncheon during the United Bermuda Party conference earlier that day.

Rep. Payne, a Democrat and a member of the House of Representatives from New Jersey, will speak at the Princess Hotel in Pembroke, banquet committee chairman Mr. Walter Roban confirmed yesterday.

The banquet caps a week of activities that are part of the annual PLP delegates' conference.

Mr. Payne, 61, was first elected to Congress in 1989 and has served on the foreign affairs, education, and labour committees.

He is president of the YMCAs of the United States and from 1973 to 1981 served as World YMCA Refugee and Rehabilitation Committee chairman. He was on the Newark municipal council from 1982 to 1989.

Mr. Bratton, 47, who is credited with cutting New York City crime by nearly 30 percent during less than two years in office, is speaking at the Southampton Princess Hotel, where he is expected to give a first-hand account of how the turn-around was achieved.

Bermuda's Police Commissioner Mr. Colin Coxall has said Bermuda could emulate New York's success story, given sufficient resources and community support.

Before taking up the top post in New York, Mr. Bratton served as the Commissioner of Police for Boston for six months in 1993. Prior to that, he served as chief of New York's transit police, cutting subway crime in half.

Premier the Hon. David Saul said the UBP originally planned a Saturday night banquet at the Southampton Princess. But it was instead decided to have Mr.

Bratton speak over lunch because events honouring Dame Marjorie Bean and the 30th anniversary of the Bermuda Regiment are planned for the same night.