18 MAY 1991, Page 21

Nature, sense, chance

THE Virgin Islands have a bank holiday for the Day of the Organic Act. I once wrote to ask Jim Keogh whether this Caribbean banking practice was observed in St Kitts, and if so, what were his duties as the supervisor. He replied in his best form, and in verse:

Exhaustive and painful researches have in- controvertibly shown That this Act concerning the Virgins is here completely unknown - In St Kitts, with its British traditions of a self-regulatory stance, We leave such matters to nature, good sense, and, admittedly, chance.