By Paul Egan Mr. Charles Jeffers says he is willing to take over the reigns of the National Liberal Party when he returns to Bermuda this year.

"There is a real need for the party, and if the party feels that it can best survive with me in a leadership role, I think I will accept,'' Mr. Jeffers told The Royal Gazette .

Mr. Jeffers, 53, has lived in Toronto since 1987, but this summer is planning to return to Bermuda, where he has a home in Pembroke.

In one of his last interviews before leaving Bermuda, he used the words of American General Douglas MacArthur to remind Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan: "I shall return,'' he said.

Mr. Gilbert Darrell, 72, who has led the party since it was born from a split in the Progressive Labour Party in 1984, announced in December that he will be stepping down this year.

Mr. Jeffers, who was a PLP candidate in Pembroke West Central in 1983 and an NLP candidate in Pembroke East Central in 1985, introduced the Canadian Scholarship Trust Plan to Bermuda in 1969 and later moved to the head office of its Canadian marketing arm.

"I do have plans to return this summer and I'm looking forward to it,'' he said. "Politics is a big part of my life.'' Mr. Jeffers, who is completing a degree in political science, will be in business for himself, mainly in the scholarship area, he said.

Mr. Jeffers said his political career started when he took part in the theatre boycott in 1959 -- even though his mother did not allow him to attend movies at the time.

Since leaving Bermuda, "I've kept up with politics,'' he said. "I've been to Bermuda two to three times a year. I get the newspapers and I get information from political sources.'' The most recent general election in October of 1993 -- in which the United Bermuda Party beat the PLP 22-18 and the NLP was shut out -- "made me feel even more determined that there is a need'' for the third party, he said.

Not only is there racial polarisation between the Island's two major political parties, but many people are unhappy with both the UBP and PLP. They "hold their noses and vote'', or do not vote at all.

"My concern, even when I was a member of the PLP, and I spent 13 years in that party, is that we have to start talking issues and stop talking race.'' And the PLP will not win a general election "as long as they have this bent to the left'', he said.

Mr. Jeffers said he has not yet considered whether he will be a NLP candidate, let alone in which constituency he will run.

"My concern would be helping the party reorganise,'' he said. "We have to gauge support of the public before we can even decide whether we're going to run (as a party).

"I believe that we have to look at a minimum number of candidates that would make us look like a viable party.'' MR. CHARLES JEFFERS -- ''If the party feels that it can best survive with me in a leadership role, I think I will accept.''