stop a Commission of Inquiry on Independence.

In a speech at Devonshire Recreation Centre, Mr. Wade repeatedly said that a Commission of Inquiry was a "ridiculous'' way to gather facts on Independence.

Rather than an inquiry followed by a referendum, Government should prepare a Green Paper, followed by a general election, Mr. Wade said.

His speech at a Progressive Labour Party public forum came a few hours after a meeting of the United Bermuda Party Parliamentary Group at which plans for a Commission of Inquiry were reportedly ditched for another method of fact finding.

The United Bermuda Party Government is still expected to call for a referendum on Independence when the House of Assembly resumes on Friday.

Mr. Wade said that Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan had not asked Parliament to approve his plans for an inquiry on Independence under the Commission of Inquiry Act 1935.

It was his own motion calling on Parliament to reject the call for an inquiry "which stopped the whole process,'' Mr. Wade said.

The Senate first delayed consideration of the Independence Referendum Act 1994 until Mr. Wade's motion was debated. When Mr. Wade did not then bring his motion forward at the next opportunity, the Senate passed an amended version of the referendum bill, and sent it back to the House to be debated Friday.

Mr. Wade's motion is also set to be debated on Friday. Several UBP MPs have been publicly critical of a Commission of Inquiry as the fact-finding method for Independence, and Mr. Wade said last night that he expected his motion to pass.

He noted that under the Act it was up to the Governor to decide whether to appoint a Commission of Inquiry. And while he consulted with the Government and Opposition on the appointments, the names were up to His Excellency.

Asking the Governor to appoint a commission to investigate Independence from the United Kingdom was "a political nonsense'' akin to the Bermuda Industrial Union asking the Hotel Employers of Bermuda to name their representatives on a body, he said.

And the commission's powers, which included the power to compel testimony, would make it more like an "inquisition,'' Mr. Wade said.

"It sounds not like a democracy that we want to see,'' he said. "It sounds like something out of Hitler's Germany.'' PLP candidate Mr. Calvin Smith, who also spoke at the meeting, said that while people in other countries had been willing to die for Independence, "our country will probably make history as the first country that was kicked into Independence.'' The Country needed an "action plan'' to prepare for Independence, he said.