Please allow me refer to the item that appeared in On The Dot column on January 6 under the heading ‘Public inconvenience’.

First of all the management in charge of the hall of the Emigrants’ Commission would like to apologise for any discomfort and inconvenience caused to the complainant. Albeit, for the sake of clearness, it should kindly be noted that, during December, there were several private functions that were held in this hall and, before every event, care was taken to make sure that toilets were clean and supplied with the necessary accessories.

Management was also present at every event organised inside the hall and at no point in time during these functions was the management ever addressed by organisers, or by any patrons, regarding the cleanliness of the toilets.

The fundamental and most important word in this whole context is ‘private’. This means that the people participating at these private functions presumably knew each other and, even for the sake of friendliness, or, if not on this level, for the sake of respect towards other participants, they would be on good behaviour and would utilise the restrooms keeping in mind others would be using them afterwards.

One must also bear in mind that such events are usually attended by 60 or even more patrons at one go and even if the toilets are sparkling clean at the beginning of such functions, their sheer usage, in such a short period of time, will almost always end up causing some sort of dirt.

The management thinks that it would have been much more fruitful if, instead of airing this private fact in public and only after days

from the mentioned function, the patrons who complained had contacted the organiser (or us directly) informing us about the behaviour of their friends so that prompt action could be taken and the matter resolved immediately.

Editorial note: It should be pointed out that the incident mentioned in the On The Dot column, which Mr Montebello seems to be confirming, actually occurred at the very start of the event, so it could not have been a case of the toilets being in such a state through “sheer usage”.