Geof Brown, that experienced columnist, has got wise to what I've been up to. Concerning our crisis, I've been jumping from opinion to opinion; from Norman Girvan to Daniel Thwaites, from Max Lambie and even to Omar Davies, whose model is better described as a muddle, in hope of finding some kind of common ground.

Indeed, my whole purpose has been trying to find some sort of synthesis of opinion which will throw some real light upon the financial problems that we face.

Each differing opinion has value, yet no convincing solution has emerged. I have concluded, for what it is worth, that there is now only one practical solution. This is to rid ourselves, in one way or another, of our foreign debt, for anything that we try to do concerning our internal debt will create mountains of troubles which will simply make matters worse.

Anguish

I am well aware that any repudiation of our foreign debt will create howls of anguish here and abroad. We could soften the blow by telling our foreign creditors that we are not cancelling the debt, but are simply postponing interest payments and repayment of capital until such time as we shall be able to carry the burden once again.

And then, that having been done, we should proceed to a massive devaluation of the Jamaican dollar. What we need is a breathing space without which we shall simply suffocate.

I'm well aware that I'm no economist, thank God, and that I'm not a member of any group of academics to whose views people are supposed to listen. But I've not lived 85 years in vain, and sometimes an old dog knows a bit more about bones than the young ones who are still young enough to think that they know everything.

In my own case the older I get the less I feel that I know but nonetheless there remains some sort of residue from past thinking and past experience.

I therefore offer the above temporary solution in the hope that all the wise young dogs, in the midst of their barking, will pay some attention to what I've written. I can do no more than that and I hope that Geof Brown will help me.

EXERCISE COMPLETE

The exercise of charging interest on sundry investments seems at last to have concluded. The building societies seem to have been the worst clobbered and the main sufferers will be people with mortgages. It is still not clear, however, how the tax will be collected from the thousands of individual savers with local banks. If these savers are not to become "tax dodgers", the Income Tax Department is going to be flooded with returns beyond its capacity to cope. I suppose we shall see in due course how the unit trusts reshape their funds.

Unless there is complete dislocation, the new tax measures will obviously have the effect of increasing taxes. This might help to mend the hole in the Budget and will certainly make a lot of people a bit poorer. But, of course, it adds nothing towards the solution of our financial confusions. The only thing at the moment that will slightly improve that situation would be the economies in the public sector recommended in the Orane Report. As far as I can see nothing whatsoever has been done about this. That doesn't surprise me in the least. The Prime Minister meets every emergency by appointing a committee and then pays no attention to its recommendations. This is known as the Patterson technique of Government.

CAMPION

We all know about the unfortunate situation at Campion College and the arrest of the principal for alleged fraud.

I haven't the faintest idea whether he or anyone else has been pinching large sums of money. This is for the Fraud Squad and ultimately the courts to decide. I think it is most unfortunate that the directors of the school have been attempting to try the case on their own. These top chaps should know better than to start trying the case outside the courts by mounting sundry protests. In this respect they are providing a very bad example to their students.