Independence crusader Walter Brown.

He sought to pierce Mr. Brown's claim there was a precedent to a local person becoming Governor.

Mr. Brown had criticised the appointment of a Briton, Thorold Masefield, as Bermuda's new Governor.

"Under the Bermuda Constitution the British Government must appoint a Governor, but there is no requirement that the individual be a British citizen or indeed that British Dependent Territories Citizens -- which is the status we hold -- be excluded from this office,'' said Mr. Brown.

Arguing for a Bermudian Governor, the chairman of the Committee for the Independence of Bermuda said there was precedence in British colonial history for such an appointment.

And he cited the case of Sir Rupert John who was Governor of St. Vincent and the Grenadines from 1970 until 1976. The territory later became independent in 1979, said Mr. Brown.

"Bermuda has a long history of social, political and economic stability and a corruption free judiciary,'' he added.

But Mr. Lloyd, ex-Governor of the Cayman Islands, said the case of Sir Rupert was not a true precedent.

In a letter to The Royal Gazette , he said St. Vincent and the Grenadines had ceased to be a dependent territory when Sir Rupert was Governor.

Instead it had become a so-called "Associate State'' with self-government.

"I have no wish -- and indeed no right -- to become involved in any debate about this matter,'' Mr. Lloyd wrote. "My sole purpose in writing, therefore, is to correct what I believe to be a misunderstanding.'' Mr. Lloyd pointed to the examples Antigua, Dominica, St. Kitts and St. Lucia.

These countries -- like St. Vincent and the Grenadines -- probably had local people as Governors, too, he said.

"But none of these was really a true precedent, for they had by then all ceased to be dependent territories and become Associated States, following the enactment of the 1967 West Indies Act by Parliament in Westminster.

"The Constitutions of such States differed significantly from those of even the most constitutionally advanced dependent territories like Bermuda.'' Mr. Lloyd said the differences were intentional: the purpose of creating them was to grant full self-government to places which at that time were thought unlikely to want, or to be able to sustain, Independence.

"Hence the UK ceased to be responsible for any of their internal affairs and relinquished its right to appoint their Governors.'' Mr. Brown's call for a Bermudian Governor has received public support from several former politicians.

They include former Premier Sir John Sharpe and ex-Senate President Hugh Richardson, who were among a list of four potential Bermudian Governors proposed by Mr. Brown's Committee.

The other two were lawyer and founding Progressive Labour Party member Arnold Francis and former Senator Norma Astwood.

The names of all four have been forwarded to the UK Government.

Editorial: Page 4