Eva Hodgson claimed at a Lions Club speech yesterday.

Independence, she said, would not end racical tensions in Bermuda.

"Will it bring us together? -- Rubbish,'' she said. "Independence will not change a great deal but it will change people's psychology.'' The issue, she said, was bound to be an emotive one -- in spite of Royal Gazette and Mid Ocean News editorials urging a more rational approach.

She said Government demands for personal and political loyalty would not change with Independence.

"I do not want Independence under a Government that continues to demean blacks outside the UBP,'' she said.

She also charged politicians who were proposing Independence of failing to first attend to local affairs such as race relations.

The cost of Independence, however, was not her prime concern.

"I don't care how much Independence costs,'' she said. "People can live with a lower standard of living.'' Instead it was the "high flying businessmen'' who were panicking at losing their lifestyles, she claimed.

Turning to the problem of racial tensions in Bermuda, she said racism and segregation were not to blame for the increasing violence among Bermudians.

Instead Dr. Hodgson pointed the finger at black leaders who had "turned their backs'' on young blacks provoking disillusionment and anger.

She accused Premier Sir John Swan of suppressing discussion on race relations.

While working for the Department of Education she claimed she had been asked by the Cabinet Office to stop writing letters to the Editor on the subject.

"I was charged with being irresponsible and for creating divisions between blacks and whites,'' she fumed.

She also claimed she had been passed over for prominent positions at the Bermuda College in favour of expatriates and black Bermudians who held less extreme views than her own.

"Most of us feel like second class citizens because we are being displaced by expats,'' she said.

And she said Bermuda College lecturer Mr. Walton Brown was an example of a black man who had been hired because he was "less of a threat to a racist society''.