from his place of business at the Olympic Club in Hamilton seems to be extraordinarily heavy handed. We have seen the photograph and, to us at least, it is not salacious in any way. It is a National Geographic type photograph of a tribesman in his normal dress. In fact this tribe has been extensively pictured in National Geographic in very similar photographs. Added to that, the picture was inside the entrance to the gym.

Much more revealing and explicit photographs are available any day on television, on the Internet and in any number of magazines on open sale. It seems to us that the person who reported the picture to the Corporation of Hamilton must have been overreacting or attempting to make trouble.

Apparently the complaint was passed first to the Corporation of Hamilton who should have taken a look and then left the matter entirely alone. We have to wonder who made the decision to report the picture to the Police and exercise censorship in such an extraordinary way. Perhaps the Police who removed the picture thought they should act because the complaint had come to them through the Corporation. But they certainly should tell the public on what legal grounds they took action and what they found offensive.

We hope this action will not set any kind of precedent but it is worrying that, acting on a complaint, the Police will simply arrive and remove material that most people can view any day. Do they plan to raid the slide show the picture was promoting? We doubt that it would be found obscene under the Obscene Publications Act 1973 which is, in any case, grossly out of date.

Was this approved by the Attorney General's department? Are we now faced with a Corporation and a Police Service which plans to censor art shows? Do the Police have in mind to confiscate Mr. Stallard's proposed new book which will probably contain this very picture? Is someone at the Corporation going to suggest that the Police remove nude paintings from the Bermuda Society of Arts or Bermuda National Gallery shows upstairs in its own City Hall? If this is going to happen in Bermuda in a high handed fashion simply because a picture is not one person's "cup of tea'' then we have a serious problem.

It is certainly not for the Corporation of Hamilton to meet in secret and say what we can and cannot see because that is not their function. It is also not the function of a Policeman acting alone on his own whim. We think the Olympic Club and Mr. Stallard should make the strongest possible representations to both the Corporation and the Police Service unless the picture is returned to its place with an apology.

Perhaps the whole thing was just a silly mistake. We hope so.