About a month after reporting on a fire at Palm Grove, the 17 April 1975 edition of The Caymanian Compass carried a story with a striking photo of flames and smoke engulfing the Casa Bertmar Guest House, which was owned by Wellesley and Erma Eldemire. A fire of unknown origin caused about $70,000 in damages. Everything in the building was lost, according to Erma, who had been born on the spot where the fire broke out, but they were able to accommodate guests at their other site across the road. Unfortunately, eyewitnesses said that while there were people who were genuinely assisting during the fire, there were instances of looting and lawlessness.
Another front-page story was about US President Gerald Ford congratulating Olney and Doris Scott on their golden wedding anniversary. Ford sent a letter on behalf of himself and his wife, Betty, saying they “were pleased to learn that you will be celebrating your fiftieth Wedding Anniversary on April 2”, adding “may you be richly blessed with many happy and rewarding years to come”. The Scotts’ daughter, Elease, who read the letter out at the celebratory gathering, was secretary to three US senators.
The editorial had a section on the reported looting during the Casa Bertmar fire, saying, “We hope that this is just a temporary or partial lapse, because we would hate to think that this is a new spate of lawlessness insidiously creeping into our Cayman society.” It also noted that whatever caused those actions, “lawlessness must be condemned”.
Following up on the previous week’s story about Brackers meeting on the draft Development Plan, the Compass noted that in a subsequent meeting, the residents voted unanimously to scrap the plan. Once again, there were calls to secede from Grand Cayman, with the article noting, “Speaker after speaker bitterly attacked” the plan.
