and to move to cut costs. In that sense the worst recession since the 1930s has produced some benefit. Minister of Finance Dr. David Saul has made prudent cuts in Bermuda's Government. President Clinton is moving against government expenditure in the United States. Individuals understand the need for financial care in their own lives in tough times.

That being the case, we are constantly puzzled by the suggestions by Mr. David Allen, Progressive Labour Party Shadow Minister for Tourism, that Bermuda should have its own airline. Everything we read about countries similar to Bermuda which have airlines, indicates that these small airlines lead only to financial disaster. Yet Mr. Allen refuses to budge from his reckless contention that somehow a local airline would be a saviour of Bermuda's tourism. We have to wonder why he persists in the face of the odds and why someone in the Progressive Labour Party does not point out to him that a Bermuda airline would be folly especially at this time.

An airline carrying a country's flag is a nice bit of public patriotism if you happen to have money to waste but Bermuda prides itself on sound financial management and Bermudians have never supported throwing money away for very little return. Bermudians also know that if we had millions to waste on an airline to show the flag, we could find much better and more productive things to spend it on.

We know that Mr. Allen hedges his suggestion by saying that the airline need not be Government run. But, Government run or not would amount in the end to the same thing. If the airline, presumably Air Bermuda or Bermuda Air, did begin service, it would almost certainly soon be in trouble, especially without feeder routes in the United States, and then Mr. Allen would be insisting the Government step in and keep it running at taxpayer expense to provide seats for visitors. In the meantime the airlines now serving Bermuda might well have become seriously angered by the Bermuda competition and begun cutting flights never to return. Then too the airlines might choose to serve Bermuda only in the high season leaving Air Bermuda to struggle on empty in the money-losing winter months.

We have to question whether a PLP government would move quickly toward the airline its Shadow Minister of Tourism so strongly espouses and what that would do to the Country.

In the Cayman Islands right now the new government is borrowing US$20 million from a consortium of banks to recapitalise Cayman Airways, which leases aircraft just as Mr. Allen has suggested Bermuda should do. Cayman Airways' accumulated deficit for 1992 is expected to reach $34 million and the $20 million recapitalisation will cover only some of the airline's debts.

Cayman Airways is now cutting staff to trim costs.

We think that an Air Bermuda could place this Country in a very similar position which would be impossible at a time when we are only borrowing to provide needed capital projects which also produce jobs for Bermudians.

Yet Mr. Allen continues to place his political party in the position of suggesting Bermuda should embark on a project which has all the potential for disaster. We must wonder if he is acting on his own which could be dangerous or if he states PLP policy. Either way the policy is seriously disturbing.