was published in Hong Kong. It has a complement of some 50 staff, including a small computer unit and a team of translators, seconded from the Civil Service and drawn from different departments of the Hong Kong Government. Additional support staff were taken on to deal with sudden increases in work-load. An organization chart is at Appendix I.
1.6 An independent Monitoring Team composed of the Rt. Hon. Sir Patrick Nairne, GCB, MC, MA and the Hon. Mr. Justice Simon Li Fook-sean, was appointed by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Common- wealth Affairs. The Monitoring Team was required to observe all aspects of the work of the Office and to submit an independent report to the Secretary of State on whether it is satisfied that the Assessment Office has properly, accurately and impartially discharged its duties and has faithfully followed the procedures presented in its terms of reference.
1.7
In order to maintain its impartiality and thus its credibility, it was considered important that the Office should take care not to appear in any way to be influencing public opinion. The responsibility for publishing, publicising, interpreting and explaining the draft agreement rested, therefore, with the Hong Kong Government. The Office confined itself to an essentially passive approach towards the receipt of views on the draft agreement in compliance with section (a) of its terms of reference.
1.8 In order to tell the people of Hong Kong how to express their views on the draft agreement, the Office placed paid advertisements in all the major English and Chinese language newspapers on 27 September and 2 October: follow-up advertisements appeared in 17 papers on 17 and 19 October. Copies of these are at Appendices II and III. The first advertise- ment invited people either to send their views in writing to the Assessment Office via its Post Office Box No. 9000, or to express them verbally through "representative bodies such as District Boards or other community organiza- tions to which you have access". It explained the task of the Assessment Office and went on to say that views expressed would be summarized and analysed and included in a report to the Governor which would then be sent to the Secretary of State. It stated that the Report together with the full text of main submissions from representative bodies would be published. This advertisement also made the point that the Office would not take anonymous letters into account and gave a contact telephone number for people to ring with enquiries. The second advertisement urged people not to leave their comments until too late, and underlined the points that views were invited not only on overall acceptability but on specific aspects as well, and that personal particulars would not be published or disclosed. It also stated that letters from individuals would be destroyed by mid-1985.(1)
1.9 The intention had been that only the views sent in by organizations would be published, provided the organizations concerned did not object, and this was stated in the advertisements. That no mention was made in
(1)Following the expression of anxiety by Legislative Councillors about the final disposal of records, and after consulting the Secretary of State, the Hong Kong Government issued a statement on 14 October to the effect that submissions not annexed to the report of the Assessment Office would be kept under seal in the Public Records Office in Hong Kong and subsequently destroyed after the ratification of the Joint Declaration.
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