Independence referendum until December at a meeting with public servants on August 13, an official testified yesterday.

Mrs. Valerie Pethen, the assistant director of Government Information Services, said the meeting included herself, Sir John, then Transport Minister the Hon. Maxwell Burgess, Cabinet Secretary Mr. Leopold Mills, and Attorney General Mr. Elliott Mottley.

The brief meeting at Police headquarters immediately followed a meeting of the Emergency Measures Organisation called in response to the approach of Hurricane Felix.

"I do recall (the Premier) saying we could have it in December,'' Mrs. Pethen told a Commission of Inquiry probing events surrounding the one-day postponement of the referendum that was planned for August 15.

When pressed under cross-examination by Mr. Trevor Moniz MP, Mrs. Pethen said she did not recall Sir John saying he would prefer that the referendum was put off until December. But in a discussion of what options existed if the hurricane struck on the morning of August 15 as forecast, it was the only option raised by Sir John, she said.

Mrs. Pethen testified the only other option discussed was to send returning officers out to open the 20 polling stations and then adjourn voting until the next day, as provided for in Section 44 of the Parliamentary Election Act.

Later yesterday, Attorney General Mr. Elliott Mottley said he did not remember Sir John making such a comment at that meeting.

"I don't remember anything of the conversation at all,'' said Mr. Mottley, who was not sworn in as a witness but spoke from counsel Mr. Richard Hector's table.

The commission has heard that a weakened Felix narrowly skirted the Island at 10.48 p.m. on August 14. No deaths or serious injuries were caused, but about two-thirds of Bermuda was without electricity, the causeway linking Hamilton Parish to St. David's Island was impassable for a time, and some roads were blocked by fallen trees, power lines, and other debris.

Mr. Mills has testified he decided it would be unsafe to send returning officers to open their polling stations in those conditions.

Mrs. Pethen said that she was working alongside Mr. Mills on August 15 after a 7 a.m. EMO meeting in the storm's wake when Mr. Mills called radio stations to announce that the referendum "had been cancelled or postponed.'' It was clear in her mind that the referendum would not be held the next day, she said. "I knew that Parliament had to be recalled and a new date set.'' While she could not recall the exact words Mr. Mills used, she believed he announced that the referendum was "off''. To invoke Section 44 and postpone the referendum for 24 hours, she believed the polls would have to open on schedule at 10 a.m.

Her testimony appeared to contradict that of Mr. Mills, who said that despite his announcement he always held out the possibility of triggering Section 44 later in the day.

That eventually happened, though only after intervention by Governor Lord Waddington, the commission has been told.

Although returning officers were sent to their polling stations early in the afternoon, no public announcement was made that the referendum would proceed on August 16 until just after 7 p.m., moments after a Cabinet meeting ended.

Information Services Director Mr. Gavin Shorto testified yesterday that Mr.

Mills told him not to make an announcement until after Cabinet met.

Announcement was delayed -- Shorto "I couldn't make it before the meeting on Mr. Mills' instructions,'' Mr.

Shorto said. "The meeting must have delayed it.'' He also felt there was a "possibility'' he might have to announce after the Cabinet meeting that the vote would not go ahead the next day.

But when Mr. Shorto arrived at the Cabinet Building for the 5.30 p.m.

meeting, "I was told that Cabinet wanted to be apprised of what had gone on during the day and what would go on the next day, before the decision was announced,'' he said.

"They simply wanted to hear about it in some detail.'' In other testimony yesterday: Political reporters from the Bermuda Broadcasting Company and VSB reported that a tape of the announcement Mr. Mills made on the morning of August 15 cannot be located at either station.

Businessman Mr. Edgar Wilkinson said he might well have announced in the Buckaroo Restaurant that the referendum would be put off until December, following a breakfast he had with Sir John on the morning of August 15.

Over breakfast, Sir John told him he "didn't really know'' the effect of the postponement just announced by Mr. Mills, but "there might have to be another act of Parliament, in which case it would probably have to be put off until December.'' Government MP the Hon. Ann Cartwright DeCouto testified she researched the law in light of the approaching hurricane and there was "total unanimity'' among her legal colleagues that returning officers should open their polling stations and adjourn voting for 24 hours if the hurricane struck.

She became "alarmed'' when she learned the referendum had been called off and telephoned Mr. Mottley at home, Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto said.

She told the AG that what was happening was "quite contrary to law,'' and "unless I could receive an assurance that the law of the land would be carried out, I would have absolutely no alternative but to make an urgent...application to the Supreme Court''.

"He could give me no such undertaking,'' she said.

Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto then contacted the Chief Justice and brought an urgent writ against Parliamentary Registrar Mrs. Marlene Christopher, seeking an order that returning officers be sent to their polling stations.

She later learned that action had already been taken at the urging of Lord Waddington.

Despite that, throughout the afternoon in Supreme Court Mr. Mottley would give no assurance that returning officers had been sent out. Instead, Mr. Mottley and his assistants were "pulling every trick out of their box of technical legal tricks'', she said.

Mr. Mottley testified that in his view Section 44 was intended to be used in a particular polling district and not Island-wide in the event of a hurricane.

That was why the discretion to adjourn voting was left to individual returning officers, and not to the Parliamentary Registrar.

Mr. Mottley also believed it was "mandatory'' that the polls open on time at 10 a.m. if Section 44 was to be invoked.

If new legislation was created to deal with future "acts of God'' interfering with elections, the power to postpone should be vested in the Governor after consultation with the Premier and other party leaders, he said.

Mr. Mottley denied that he was part of any decision to postpone the referendum at a meeting of top civil servants in Mr. Mills' office on the afternoon of August 14.

Earlier, Mr. Mills said it was agreed at the meeting that "weather conditions were predicted to be such that nobody could be expected to venture out'' the next day.

Mr. Mills would make a final decision the next morning on whether the referendum would go ahead, and the other officials, including Mr. Mottley, agreed to sign a letter supporting him, the Cabinet Secretary said.

But Mr. Mottley said the only decision he was part of was that Mr. Mills would make a public statement that night to let the public know what was happening, and "a common sense decision would be made the following day''.

"I was not part of any decision -- no decision was taken to postpone the referendum,'' he said.

The commission, chaired by retired Court of Appeals Judge the Rt. Hon. Telford Georges, has adjourned until Monday morning at 10 a.m., when hearings will resume at Wesley Methodist Church Hall.

The other commission members are former Permanent Secretary of Finance Dr.

Walwyn Hughes and lawyer Ms Sonia Grant.