seemingly innocuous report by a Parliamentary committee on labour legislation.

The joint select committee of MPs and Senators, set up a year ago, agreed last Monday on a rather inconclusive interim report to present to Parliament.

The same day, Police arrested 15 pickets at the airport, Government obtained a court injunction against the BIU, which the union seemed bound on ignoring.

The Island teetered on the brink of industrial disaster. Committee chairman Mr. Gilbert Darrell MP, the National Liberal Party leader, pressed his colleagues to come up with sterner stuff.

To no avail. "I tried to get them to agree on saying something more definite,'' Mr. Darrell complained yesterday. "Things were really heating up.

But nobody seemed prone to say anything. I just couldn't permit myself to go along with this.'' So Mr. Darrell refused to sign the accord and penned a rigorous interim report of his own.

Among other things, it called on Government to implement "forthwith'' several major law changes, including secret balloting for industry-wide strikes, deadlines for mediation, and binding arbitration.

The committee's United Bermuda Party members -- MPs Dr. David Dyer, Mr. Tony Correia and the Hon. John Stubbs and Sen. Max Burgess -- saw an opportunity to back out of an interim report they didn't really want to issue in the first place, according to Dr. Dyer.

If the chairman wouldn't sign, they said, they wouldn't sign either. Another committee member, Independent Sen. Joe Johnson, also backed out saying the idea was to produce a consensus report.

In the end, the only people who signed the original select committee report -- or a report almost identical to it -- were the Progressive Labour Party members, Shadow Labour Minister Mrs. Lois Browne Evans, Mr. Walter Roberts MP and Sen. Alex Scott.

"All I can tell you is that we had a consensus when we last met, and that was that the report would be signed by all,'' Mrs. Browne Evans said yesterday.

But then Mr. James Smith, clerk to the House of Assembly, telephoned to say that Mr. Darrell and the UBP men were not going to sign. But Mrs. Browne Evans said the PLP contingent decided to sign what it and the other committee members had agreed to sign.

That brief report outlined what the committee had been up to since last summer. The only concrete recommendation was one to re-activate the Labour Advisory Council with mandatory monthly meetings.

"It's just the craziest thing, having an interim report when you still have things you are looking into,'' the UBP's Dr. Dyer said. "The interim report doesn't say anything at all anyway. You need an in-depth final report.'' Sen. Johnson yesterday told Senators that he agreed with the report issued over the PLP signatures. "I did not sign it because I hoped we could adopt a consensus report,'' he said. "Unfortunately that did not happen.'' Sen. Johnson said "conciliation'' rather than legislation is the answer to the Island's labour problems.

But nevertheless, he said, it was in the national interest to urgently consider: Legally binding contracts Secret ballots in the workplace Compulsory mediation 90 days after a contract expires Final offer binding arbitration 120 days after a contract expires.

"I'm sorry it's worked out this way,'' said Mr. Darrell, who had lobbied hard for the committee to be set up in the first place.

He said he still hoped his joint select committee could do some good, though his own interim report was full of complaints about the way it was operating.

Neither of the Island's two largest unions, the Bermuda Industrial Union and the Bermuda Public Service Association, had attended although they were invited to make reports on many occasions.

He complained that "attendance of committee members was so poor at times that it affected meaningful discussion.'' And he expressed fears that any election later this year would mean an end to the committee before it produced a final report.

Another danger, Dr. Dyer said, was that much of the committee's work could be pre-empted by legislation that Labour Minister the Hon. J. Irving Pearman has promised to introduce in the wake of last week's strikes.

"I think the intent as good,'' Dr. Dyer said. "And I still think we will at least produce a fairly detailed document. The committee has done a lot of research. This at least will avoid the necessity of going over it again, so it's not a waste of time.'' Mr. Gilbert Darrell.