The 23 Oct. 1975 edition of The Caymanian Compass carried the optimistic story, ‘Cayman Geared for Best Season Ever’. Members of the tourism sector were planning for a busy winter, with hotels showing strong bookings for November and December. Director of Tourism Eric Bergstrom said the numbers had steadily risen since June. After the previous winter, which Bergstrom said was “a bit of a disaster”, the summer of 1975 was one of the best ever, due to a successful marketing campaign.
There was yet another story on Jean Doucet, this time about him pleading not guilty to all 24 charges of fraudulent conversion of gold. Accompanying that article was a photo of Victor Durand, QC, who was part of the prosecution’s team, speaking with Deputy Police Commissioner Roy Archer; Seymour Panton, who orchestrated the extradition of Doucet from Monaco; and Alan Binney, the officer in charge of investigations.
A small front-page story told of the plight of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Whitney, who had gone to the cinema and parked close to the main road as the parking lot was full. While they were inside, someone had taken the new front tyres and rims, and replaced them with old, worn-out tyres. The couple only noticed on the ride home when the trip seemed ‘a lot more bumpy and uneven than usual’. Police were investigating the incident.
Page 6 was devoted to the new Government Administrative Building, including a story written by Frances Bodden, who spent 34 years in public service, spanning 11 different administrations. In ‘The Story of Old Government House’, Bodden described how the original two-storey building was constructed in 1907, with the top floor the ‘dwelling house’ and downstairs comprising such things as offices, a ‘huge bathroom’ and space to hold ‘social functions’. The building withstood many a storm, Bodden wrote, but it was destroyed by fire in July 1972. “Many a tear was shed that day as people stood by and watched with nothing left but memories,” the article noted.
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