Dear Editor,

I write in response to a front- page story carried in the Observer of Monday, 21st October, titled: ‘Bertram wants Sangster Airport renamed after former PNP minister’.

In the one-hour lecture I gave on ‘The Life, Times & Vision of A G S Coombs,’ I did not once call for the Donald Sangster International Airport to be renamed, nor for any landmark to be named in his honour. In the discussion which followed the lecture, members of the audience made such a call.

On my way out, I was approached by a reporter from the Observer who, surprisingly, did not ask a single question about my presentation, but simply asked for my view on the resolution from the floor calling for the renaming of the airport. In my response, I pointed out that I supported the sentiment expressed by the audience as there was a basis for it, since Coombs, in his tenure as the minister of communications and works, was not a bystander in the development of both the Montego Bay International airport and in the starting up of Negril. Coombs actively led in the development of both projects.

I, therefore, find the headline given to the article which appeared on the front page of your newspaper, purporting to report on my lecture, entirely misleading.

I request that this clarification be given equal prominence as the referenced article.

Arnold Bertram