parties throughout the Caribbean, according to the Secretary General of the Progressive Labour Party, Walter Roban.

And Bermudians have been joining the PLP "in droves'' since last month's election victory, he said. Party membership was in the thousands, and "increasing weekly,'' Mr. Roban said, adding: "We have seen a substantial increase in membership since the election. It's been an overwhelming response.'' Mr. Roban has been Secretary General, the party's chief administrative officer, since he was elected to the post in 1995.

In an interview with The Royal Gazette late last week, he said that the party's ties with Britain's New Labour party, in power for a year and a half, remained strong.

The PLP has been in touch with a number of British Members of Parliament, among them Paul Boateng, Patricia Hewitt, Ian Davidson and Dianne Abbott.

"The paths of New Labour and the PLP have been almost identical in the past three or four years,'' said Mr. Roban. "Last year our leader, Jennifer Smith, attended the Labour Party conference to solidify ties between the two parties.

After all, we are both labour parties within the Commonwealth.'' The PLP also has established ties to political parties in the Caribbean.

"Frederick Wade was a friend of P.J. Patterson, the Bahamian leader,'' explained Mr. Roban, "and Lois Browne-Evans had a close friendship with Michael Manley of Jamaica.'' Mr. Roban added that PLP leaders had been in contact with "parties of like philosophies'' in Trinidad and other Caribbean countries. "When we were in Opposition, we spent a lot of time interacting with political allies in the Caribbean, which is not something we saw happening with the previous Government here,'' he said. "They only seemed to be in touch with the Conservative Party in Great Britain. We didn't see them building bridges with other parties in this region in quite the same way,'' Mr. Roban concluded.