could be the most significant Constitutional development for the Island in more than 30 years.

On Monday or soon after, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook will table his long-awaited White Paper on the Dependent Territories in the House of Commons.

It should contain an offer of British citizenship to all citizens of what is left of the British Empire.

There is little question that the offer will be made and on the surface, Bermuda would be mad to refuse it. Right of residence in Britain and, by extension, the rest of the European Union, without reciprocal rights for British and EU citizens, is a great deal.

But what will not be clear until the White Paper is tabled is what Bermuda and the other dependent territories will have to give up in return. This will be in the small print, according to one British newspaper.

It is fairly certain that Britain will want the dependent territories to align themselves more closely with British policy in two general areas -- human rights and financial regulation.

Britain will urge Bermuda to abolish capital punishment. Britain does not have what is being termed "the nuclear option'' of imposing abolition on the Island, as it has done with the Caribbean colonies. But the message will be clear; don't expect favours from Britain if you don't change the law.

To some extent the debate is redundant in Bermuda. Capital punishment has not been exercised since 1977, and so long as there is a British Governor, it almost certainly will not be exercised again.

In addition, the November, 1998 General Election probably means there is now a majority of MPs in the House of Assembly in favour of abolition and a conscience vote would lead to its repeal.

Financial regulation is a more complicated issue. Bermuda has a better reputation than most, if not all, offshore domiciles for being a responsibly administered and "clean'' financial centre; nonetheless, Britain is likely to want more than that. It will want the Island to recognise tax evasion as a crime and, according to the Daily Telegraph, Britain wants to use the dependent territories in its talks with the EU over tax harmonisation -- a principle the UK itself opposes, but can show its partners its good faith by targeting the offshore territories like Bermuda which have no corporation tax at all.

It is difficult to gauge what effect the British financial proposals will have on Bermuda until the White Paper is published. Even then, it may be that only hindsight will show if Bermuda has made the right decision.

But Bermuda does run significant risks if it does not keep pace with other offshore domiciles which are cleaning up their images. For some time, the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the EU have been discussing a "blacklist'' for countries which do not meet their standards.

Now the United Nations is considering a "whitelist'' of countries which do meet tax evasion and money laundering standards. Gibraltar, the Isle of Man and Malta are all reported to have started talks on joining this list; Bermuda apparently has not.

In the end, Bermuda has to ensure that it is cleaner than clean -- or the "quality'' which comes to Bermuda will go elsewhere. Bermuda should back the UN's approach -- which focuses on money laundering, not low tax rates -- to make sure the Island is beyond reproach in this area.

If this is the right approach anyway, then accepting the British offer of citizenship in return for doing something which may have to be done anyway only makes sense.