Conference on Women in Beijing.

And about half the women who were to be part of the Bermuda delegation will be forced to miss the conference, due to chaos in the Chinese capital.

Mr. Jerome Dill, who until Friday was Human Affairs Minister, was to represent Government in Beijing as part of the British delegation.

"I will definitely not be going to China,'' Mr. Dill said yesterday. "I will be in a much better position to give you the full story once the full Cabinet is appointed.'' When it became clear the Cabinet would not be named yesterday as Premier the Hon. David Saul hoped, Mr. Dill later said that the Cabinet Minister who succeeded him would not be going to China, either.

Instead, money that would have been used to send the Minister would be given to other Bermuda delegates attending the conference.

That means Bermuda will have no Government representative at the conference.

But Mr. Dill said the Government would in effect be represented through Government Sen. Yvette Swan.

Sen. Swan and other Bermudian women attending the conference are representing non-governmental bodies like the Women's Advisory Council and will attend a conference held separately from the government forum.

But Sen. Swan, who is attending as a representative of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women, is also accredited to sit in on the Government conference, Mr. Dill said.

"The difficulty, really, is going to be for the British Government,'' Mr.

Dill said. "I was going to advise them on what the Bermuda Government's position was on certain issues.'' Sen. Swan, Opposition Sen. Neletha (Honey) Butterfield, Ms Arlene Swan, and Deputy Opposition Leader Ms Jennifer Smith were among about a half dozen Bermudian women believed to be in Beijing today or on their way there.

But at least the same number of women from Bermuda cannot now attend, due to inability to confirm hotel rooms and visas.

Ms JoCarol Robinson, chairperson of the Women's Advisory Council, said she and Mrs. Kim Young were supposed to fly to Beijing on Sunday for the NGO conference.

But they could not fly because they did not have visas, which were linked to hotel bookings which were never confirmed in the chaos of the Beijing conference, she said.

"It's a major frustration,'' Ms Robinson said. "We have been gearing up for this conference for a number of months. Now, through a technicality, we're going to be prevented from going.'' Mr. Dill had planned to take to Beijing a draft copy of a Government policy paper on the status of women in Bermuda. But its preparation is behind schedule.

"I certainly would have had something prepared to take out there, but I wouldn't have wanted to share it with anyone in the state it was in,'' Mr.

Dill said.

Months of logistical confusion resulted from China's last-minute shift of the NGO Forum to a distant Beijing suburb. Story: Page 40