Island's democratic safeguards -- such as judicial appointments -- once ties with Great Britain are severed.

Former Deputy Governor of Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, Mr. Peter Lloyd, who is married to a Bermudian, raised the concern at a dinner discussion of the Business and Professional Women's Association on Wednesday night.

He was one of four speakers from four different camps on the controversial issue to be decided by Referendum this summer.

United Bermuda Party Senator Yvette Swan took the position the issue was "now open and on the table'' and it was the duty of Bermudians to see the information in the Green Paper was built on.

She added in the coming months "position papers'' on different issues would be published. And she stressed, her party was "asking'' Bermudians what they want and they should be grateful for the invitation to choose.

Banker and Front Street merchant Mr. Eldon Trimingham repeated his position that Bermuda was far too small to go it alone in an increasingly global world.

"Independence is a thing of the past,'' he said.

He warned of the financial impact on local incomes as taxes had to be increased to cover new costs. And then there was the chance Bermuda's two industries, international business and tourism could suffer causing even more financial hardship to Bermudians.

"Serious erosion in this area (international business) has already started. I was in the Cayman Islands a week ago and they are rubbing their hands with glee,'' he said.

Mr. Trimingham also warned of corruption -- "dictatorships'' -- due to power.

"Why is many places that have gone independent end up with one-party governments?,'' he said.

The British Government provided a system of checks and balances, he said. He believed the "Hong Kong'' option could be a lucrative alternative for Bermuda. After Hong Kong reverts to China in 1997, there would be just 160,000 people remaining in British dependent territories, which could open up a great opportunity to join the European Community.

Longtime Independence activist and political science lecturer Mr. Walton Brown Jr. said in his view, the "Hong Kong'' option was "not an option''.

He said Independence opponents were not looking at fact over fiction.

And it was useless looking at how Caribbean Islands had fared under Independence. Many were poor not from Independence, but from colonialism as Europe sought to extract wealth from them.

Bermuda, however, was a settlement colony. And its economy was built up to benefit Bermudians.

On the risks to international companies, he noted "a bumper crop of companies incorporated in Bermuda during the height of the Independence debate''.

"If there's a smooth transition there does not have to be political instability,'' he said.

Mr. Lloyd further said that proven lack of cooperation between Bermuda's two political parties would hinder the protection of those safeguards, which included the voting system and appointment of the judiciary.

For example, he said there had "virtually never been any form of cooperation -- even over matters both parties agreed were of national concern such as drug abuse''.

And Government and the Opposition's suspicion of each other would not change after Independence, he said.

"If you are going to become Independent, you should build safeguards against abuses into the Independence constitution. The Green Paper had plenty of fine words and...stressed the need to maintain existing democratic safeguards by entrenchment in the constitution, but it was remarkably silent or at best vague on details as to how those safeguards were to be effected,'' he said.