A Commission of Inquiry report on the one-day delay in Bermuda's Independence referendum was delivered to Governor Lord Waddington yesterday afternoon.

The Governor will "now make arrangements for its publication as soon as possible,'' Deputy Governor Mr. Peter Willis told The Royal Gazette .

It is expected to be made public as early as today.

The report was ordered under the Commission of Inquiry Act 1935 amid widespread suspicions that then Premier Sir John Swan and others in Government attempted to have the referendum put off until December.

The report, which is about 40 pages long, is expected to recommend: A new piece of legislation which would be used any time Bermuda held a referendum. Currently, a new law must be passed for each such plebiscite; and Amendments to the Parliamentary Election Act 1978 to provide for "acts of God'' like a hurricane.

Commission members Dr. Walwyn Hughes and Ms Sonia Grant, along with secretary Mr. Gladstone Bassett, delivered the report to Government House yesterday.

Retired Appeals Court Judge Mr. Telford Georges, who chaired the commission, has returned to the Caribbean.

One source said the report, which makes only three recommendations, contains "nothing startling'' and suggests that Independence opponents who saw a conspiracy in the referendum's delay from August 15 to August 16 had over-reacted.

Hurricane Felix narrowly skirted the Island on the eve of the scheduled vote, downing trees and power lines and temporarily making impassable the causeway linking Hamilton Parish to St. David's Island.

Early on the morning of the 15th, Cabinet Secretary Mr. Leopold Mills went on live radio to say that the referendum would not go ahead.

As lawyers and Government MPs Mrs. Ann Cartwright DeCouto and Mr. John Barritt launched a court challenge, Lord Waddington himself intervened to help assure the referendum was only postponed for one day.

Otherwise, Parliament would have had to be reconvened to set a new date, and the vote would likely have been held no sooner than December.

Conspiracy proponents noted that polls showed the Independence mandate that Sir John badly wanted was out of reach. They testified it was in his interest to have the vote delayed until Christmas. And they said it was highly unlikely Mr. Mills would announce the referendum was off without the Premier's approval.

Mr. Mills -- who was called to the stand three times -- insisted that no political interference occurred. While "it was obvious there was no provision in the law for the postponement'', it was a matter of "common sense, practicality, and public safety,'' he said.

At the end of five days of testimony in November, Government backbencher Mr.

Trevor Moniz conceded the inquiry had led to no "smoking gun''.

But it did reveal a weakness in Bermuda's Parliamentary Election Act, which did not envision a hurricane striking close to the time of a vote.

Attorney General Mr. Elliott Mottley testified the one-day delay was only made possible by using Section 44 of the Parliamentary Election Act rather imaginatively.

The section -- which allowed individual returning officers to delay voting for a day in the event of a disturbance -- was meant to deal with an isolated problem in one or two polling areas, not a disaster which struck the entire Country, Mr. Mottley said.

Otherwise, the power to adjourn voting would be placed in the hands of the Parliamentary Registrar, not individual returning officers, he said.

After initially resisting calls for a probe, Premier David Saul reluctantly called for the inquiry in the hopes that it would "clear the air'' about events surrounding the referendum delay.

But the report is unlikely to end suspicions in the minds of some Bermudians.

"This commission must view the acts that took place at this crucial time in history in the light of the circumstances that were prevailing and indeed the political motivation of the parties that were involved,'' testified former Government Senator Mr. Wendell Hollis.

Cabinet secrecy dogged the hearing, and the commission never heard what went on at an August 15 Cabinet meeting which has been at the centre of most conspiracy theories.

Due to the routine destruction of radio tapes, the commission was also unable to determine exactly what Mr. Mills said on radio early on referendum morning.