New Deputy Governor Mark Capes was sworn in yesterday but denied he was walking a diplomatic tightrope as Bermuda debates the Independence issue.

Mr. Capes, 52, who finished a four-year stint as deputy Governor in Anguilla in August, said he had kept abreast of the issues by reading online.

With Bermuda pushing for Independence, Mr. Capes could be the Island?s last ever Deputy Governor.

He told : ?Inevitably change will come at some point.?

But he added he did not believe he was walking into a diplomatic minefield. ?These are issues that are there to be discussed and addressed. I don?t see it a minefield.

?These issues need to be transparent. And as far as I can see these issues have been very transparent.?

Welcoming Mr. Capes, Premier Alex Scott said the new Deputy Governor would have to serve the interests of Britain, but he added: ?Our interests are also most important.

?Bermuda is at a very important point in our history. We manage ourselves well, we are a diverse community.?

He said Bermuda was probably the largest British overseas territory.

?Any posting here requires a real deft hand, I detect Mark Capes has that ability.?

The Premier joked that Bermuda was playing musical chairs with top posts as it welcomed Mr. Capes from that island while Solicitor General Wilhelm Bourne was heading in the other direction to become Attorney General.

Mr. Capes told that his role had been very different in Anguilla.

?In Anguilla the Deputy Governor is head of the public service and a member of the Cabinet and even an ex officio member of parliament.?

The successive appointments to beautiful islands have sparked a measure of envy from colleagues in London, said Mr. Capes at yesterday?s ceremony at Government House.

He said Bermuda was truly unique with its extraordinary economic success and warm and vibrant people. ?It stands quite firmly in a class of its own.

?I regard myself very fortunate to be here.?

He will soon be joined by his wife and dog although his two grown-up daughters are overseas.

Mr. Capes, who replaces Nick Carter who was appointed in June 2003, has served as a British diplomat in Belgium, Portugal, Yugoslavia, Jordan, Nigeria and Austria and Turks and Caicos.

From 1994-1999 he was First Secretary Economic and Environment in New Zealand before becoming Deputy Governor in Anguilla. In Anguilla he said huge tourism investment had made it necessary to make sure economic growth was matched by social development.

Geographically larger by a third than Bermuda, Anguilla has only 12,000 people.

During his most recent spell in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, from 1999 to 2002, Mr. Capes was Deputy Head of Parliamentary Relations and Devolution Department, in which capacity he also served as Foreign Affairs Advisor to the UK Branch of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.