A Bahamian journalist whose country cut colonial ties with Britain 22 years ago has urged Bermudians: "Don't rush to Independence.'' Mrs. Rosemarie Johnson Clarke added: "Take it slowly, and don't do what we did.'' Mrs. Clarke, Features Editor with The Tribune in Nassau, saw parallels between the Independence debate in Bermuda and that which raged in the Bahamas.

White Bahamians were nervous about slashing links with Britain, while many blacks believed it would signal liberation, she said.

"If you were to take a survey now of 300 people, I believe they would all say Independence was fine,'' she said. "But the white Bahamians would still maintain Independence could have come later.'' Mrs. Clarke said the Bahamas underwent dramatic changes when it struck out on its own in 1973 under Sir Lynden Pindling, leader of the Progressive Liberal Party.

And the experience was not a happy one.

"The PLP decided to place everything under Government control, even the hotels. There was also a lot of corruption.'' Mrs. Clarke said many companies uprooted and left the Island because of the regime.

"Independence and the PLP Government became intermingled, and people associated the two,'' she explained.

"It may be just a perception, and there was not necessarily a link between the two, but to many it was a reality.'' Mrs. Clarke stressed she was not suggesting Bermuda would suffer anything similar.

But the Bahamian experience drove home the importance of studying all the pros and cons of Independence.

Many black people, said Mrs. Clarke, were disillusioned by the corruption of the PLP administration, and the sight of Sir Lynden living in luxury.

It bashed their hopes of a new beginning following Independence.

"The glitz and glamour of Independence faded, and there were heartaches in some areas.'' Now, however, there was renewed business confidence in the Bahamas under the Free National Movement regime, said Mrs. Clarke.

And major companies, such as the Sandals hotel chain, were returning.

Mrs. Clarke said she saw grounds for optimism in the way Bermuda was handling the Independence debate.

"From what I have heard Bermuda is looking into the question of Independence seriously, and there is a lot of debate which is a very good thing.'' Mrs. Clarke, who was just ten when the Bahamas slashed ties with Britain, flew to Bermuda for the first time on April 2 for an eight-day visit.

She plans to write some travel pieces and do a comparative study of Bermuda and her own Island.

"I would like to write about what we can learn from Bermuda,'' she explained.

In particular she was interested in the way Bermuda was tackling crime.

"For instance I noticed there was a dog at the Airport which, I was told, met every incoming flight and checked for drugs.

"This is something we could do in the Bahamas. I was also interested in the way profiling was carried out on people arriving at the Airport.

"Anybody who fitted the profile of a drug carrier would be singled out.'' Mrs. Clarke said she hoped to interview key people in the community.