fiery attack on three Government Ministers last night at an Independence forum at St. Anne's Hall in Southampton.

The Ministers -- the Hon. Irving Pearman, the Hon. David Saul and the Hon.

Jerome Dill -- are members of the Government Green Paper on Independence Committee.

Dominating the meeting, Mr. Viera fired successive questions at the panel members. Mr. Viera claimed there was an inconsistency between the positions of the Premier and the Finance Minister over the Independence issue.

"Why is the Premier giving his opinion to the British papers and Dr. Saul is keeping quiet?'' he asked. "The Cabinet appears to be all over the place.'' But Mr. Saul, a self-proclaimed fence sitter admitted if he voted against Independence, the international Press would report a "violent split'' between the Premier and Finance Minister. If he voted for it, "the international company types would think I'd lost my beans.

"If I take a stance either way it would damage Bermuda's international reputation,'' he said. Mr. Viera also accused the Committee of failing to properly estimate the cost of increasing and maintaining an adequate Police Force to deal with civil unrest.

"It is a fiction that the Bermuda Regiment would be a back-up for the Police Force,'' Mr. Viera claimed.

He also demanded that the panel name three independent micro states comparable to Bermuda where Independence had succeeded.

But Mr. Pearman claimed the panel's focus had been on Bermuda.

"We have looked at the constitutions and the cost of other countries but not how they have managed,'' he said.

At the meeting attended by about 50 people including Youth and Sports Minister Hon. Pamela Gordon, UBP MP Mr. David Dodwell and Sen. Yvette Swan, Mr. Pearman was asked how the question of Independence came to the forefront.

He replied there had been pressure from the Premier and the Hon. Quinton Edness to put the matter on the agenda.

"That is my responsibility but that is where it started. It then took on a life of its own,'' Mr. Pearman said.

But he did not comment on whether a Bermuda Sun article reporting that Mr.

Pearman had blamed backbencher Mrs. Ann Cartright DeCouto for forcing the issue into the limelight, was accurate.

On the question of whether dual nationality citizens would be forced to surrender their second passport was put forward, Mr. Dill replied that this was up to the other country involved. He said Government would contemplate dual citizenship but could not speak for other governments.

And if the referendum resulted in a `no' vote, one man asked, would Government support changes proposed in the compendium regarding citizenship? Mr. Pearman replied the issue would be reviewed.