context in an English newspaper article which characterised Bermuda as "70 percent black and poor and 30 percent white and rich or very rich'', Police said yesterday.

But Shadow Home Affairs Minister Alex Scott said the tone of the article -- which said the Service was stuck in a time warp and suffered from rock bottom morale -- was unfortunate but not surprising.

Police Press officer Evelyn James Barnett said the Commissioner of Police and other officers had seen the article, headlined "Paradise lost, but Mike brings hope'', and had discussed it with Mr. Mylod at his home in Hampshire.

Mrs. James Barnett said Mr. Mylod had agreed to the interview but was unaware of the article. When the article was read out to him, Mrs. James Barnett said that it appeared parts of the interview had been taken out of context.

The Royal Gazette has learned that the article was published in the Southern Daily Echo in Southampton, a town of a quarter of a million people.

The article said domestic violence and child abuse was rife and there was a high propensity toward violence on the Island.

The reporter portrayed the Bermuda Police Service as "trapped in a time warp with talent in the lower ranks stifled and unable to rise to the top (and) the island's three Police stations in appalling condition and rock bottom morale among the 432 officers.'' Mylod hits headlines drugs problem and encountered five murders in his 18 months on the Island.

Most of the article carries the reporter's slant, although four paragraphs are attributed to Mr. Mylod, who said that his experience in Bermuda was a good one and it gave him an insight into a very complicated community.

But Mr. Scott said the story's overall tone was disparaging.

"When the Bermuda Government recruits people to the Island, we do not necessarily bring in solutions to our problems,'' he said. "Sometimes it creates problems. I never thought that Mr. Mylod, when he was the Deputy Police Commissioner, ever climatised to his responsibility.

"You would never see a Bermudian referring to either his colleagues or the people of this country in such a disparaging fashion. A Bermudian brings a level of commitment. And that makes the difference between a local, and someone who sees our Island only from the point of view of how it best serves his career.'' Mr. Scott said these problems would continue until Bermuda has locals from top to bottom in the Bermuda Police Service.

"Mr. Mylod was trying to create a little England out here in the mid-Atlantic,'' he said. "That never was going to work. Morale was down in the Bermuda Police Service because of the presence of Messrs Mylod and Coxall.''