devastating indictment of Bermuda's complacency. What David Critchley says should be heeded for the future because he tells it like it is. Sadly, this may be the last public communication from a man who has devoted his life to service.

It has not always been fashionable in Bermuda to listen to David Critchley because he has been a liberal thinker sandwiched between two political polarisations, one basically radical and one basically fascist. The radicals would not support David Critchley because for them he never went far enough to the left and the Right Wing dislikes nothing more than it dislikes a white liberal. David Critchley says: "...Government made sure that checks and balances were imposed on the Ministry of Health and Social Services by assuring that, except for one brief temporary period, the Ministers I served were selected from the ranks of those who were considerably to the right of Genghis Khan.'' David Critchley was looking for a more caring Bermuda and had looked for it since his youth. It is a shame that the Human Rights Commission in announcing its first achievement awards has overlooked the role David Critchley played in the early 1950s.

Those who carefully read his thoughts last Friday will have been overwhelmed by the number of good and valid points he makes. David Critchley understands Bermuda. He knows the deep causes and if Bermuda had listened, it might well have dealt with some tough problems.

There have been claims in the past that David Critchley's thoughts were fuzzy and rather impractical and "out in left field'' yet the document this newspaper printed deals in hard practicality and a great deal of common sense.

Let's take a look at some of the practical suggestions. David Critchley has been Permanent Secretary of Health and Social Services. He recommends, for very practical reasons, that drug addiction should be treated abroad. Dealing with the proposal for local treatment centres he says, correctly we think, "At present Government can pick from several overseas centres and I am aware of no evidence that supports the prevailing conviction that local is more effective than overseas treatment. Certainly, by virtue of demand alone, we can expect that the per capita cost of anything worthy of the name treatment that we do locally will cost at least twice what we are presently paying for residential treatment in Quebec.'' Mr. Critchley seems to us to be suggesting a sensible, practical solution at a time when Bermuda is embarking on a local treatment programme which will be less effective than it can obtain abroad. We think that local treatment facilities will enhance the Social Services empire but local residential treatment will be vastly more expensive and it has the added disadvantage of leaving victims of drug abuse susceptible to their drug environment and to Bermuda's social stigma during their treatment.

Mr. Critchley thinks that Government should give second thoughts to its plans to develop a treatment programme for sex offenders in Bermuda. "Many excellent such facilities exist in North America, particularly in Canada; and explorations with the Ontario Government have indicated a willingness to consider accepting Bermudian sex offenders for treatment.'' We think David Critchley is correct. Residential treatment abroad is practical, sensible and cheaper and, we think, ought to be insured for. To be continued...