The British Cabinet Minister responsible for Bermuda is planning a visit to the Island in the run-up to next summer's Independence referendum.

Mr. Tony Baldry, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, told a recent meeting of the Bermuda Society that he hoped to visit the Island during the Easter recess.

Conservative MP and part-time Bermuda resident Mr. Rupert Allason said Mr.

Baldry had targetted April for his first visit since taking up the post as a result of Prime Minister John Major's July 20 Cabinet shuffle.

An Easter visit would land him in Bermuda at the height of the Independence debate, midway between the tabling of a Cabinet paper in the House of Assembly and the referendum planned for late June or early July.

Since taking office, Mr. Baldry has visited all the dependent territories he is responsible for, except Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

"As soon as it is possible, he would like to visit,'' a F&CO official in London told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

And Easter is one of the few times Cabinet Ministers get to travel, he said.

But he added that Mr. Baldry's visit was not yet firm enough to be called "tentative.'' And he said any visit by Mr. Baldry before the referendum should not be interpreted as Her Majesty's Government "sending in the gunboats.'' "If he was there eight weeks before a referendum, he would obviously be asked (about Independence),'' the official said. "The answer would be exactly the same. Have the referendum.'' The UK's position had not changed. It was neutral on Independence, and if Bermuda decided on a referendum, it needed to "get on and do it.'' Legislation to provide for the referendum would first have to pass Parliament.

In the last session, Government's Independence Referendum Act ran into trouble in both the House of Assembly and the Senate.

Government House and Bermuda officials had not been notified of the visit as of yesterday.

But Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan said Mr. Baldry was welcome at any time.

"I think that anything that helps to give the public information is important,'' Sir John said.

Mr. Baldry "represents the view of the British Government, and you've had our representatives over there talking to him. I think if he wishes to come, he would be welcome.'' The F&CO official, who did not wish to be named, said that recent comments by Deputy Premier the Hon. Irving Pearman about his Independence talks in the UK were "accurate.'' Mr. Pearman led a delegation of Cabinet Ministers that is preparing an Independence discussion paper called a Green Paper. He told a recent Independence forum sponsored by North Village Community Club that Britain had "nothing else to give'' Bermuda in terms of new Constitutional powers, short of Independence.

The visit gave him no comfort that a changed relationship with the UK was possible after Hong Kong returned to China in 1997.

Mr. Allason has said that once the millions of Hong Kong residents were no longer a concern, Britain could be willing to give Bermudians and UK citizens of other dependent territories the right to live and work in Britain, and the European Union.

On Monday, Mr. Allason said he was not surprised at what Mr. Pearman said.

For the UK Government, "it would be impossible for them to discuss it prior to 1997,'' he said.

Mr. Allason said he was meeting regularly with Mr. Baldry regarding the planned closure of HMS Malabar next year and other issues affecting Bermuda.