P.O. Box 9000, of registering, translating, analysing and assessing them; and finally of disposing of them with the required safeguards for confidentiality.
(c) We arranged to receive and scrutinise ourselves all the letters, submissions, media reports and articles received as a basis for checking the accuracy and the impartiality with which the Assessment Office was making its daily analyses and assessments.
(d) We attended, as observers, the regular meetings held twice a week by the Commissioner as a basis for reviewing progress and considering the latest batches of analytical assessments by the Assessment Office.
When the Assessment Office came to prepare its report, we arranged to see drafts at the appropriate stage for the purpose of raising any queries we wished and making a timely start with the drafting of our own report.
10. We discharged our witnessing function by attending a representative selection of the meetings at which the draft agreement was discussed- as set out in Annex II. The character and composition of these meetings were varied, enabling us to listen to a wide range of views coming from many different levels of the Hong Kong community. This experience gave us a direct and valuable insight into the reactions to the draft agreement which found more formal expression in the many submissions we have read from organizations and interest groups.
General Observations
11. Before setting out our conclusions we wish to make two general observations about the conduct of the assessment task.
12. First, there had been no previous experience in Hong Kong of such a massive consultation and assessment exercise-of which the organisa- tion and terms of reference had to be settled before the final outcome of the negotiations with the Chinese Government was known; and some difficulties were to be expected. There has been some sharp public criticism of the value of the assessment task, to which the Assessment Office itself could not reply; and, in the light of it, we believe that more should have been done earlier at the political level to explain, as well as to assert, the importance of consulting and assessing the views of Hong Kong on the draft agreement in all its aspects. It was clearly evident that a people traditionally reserved in political matters included many who were also disposed to doubt the value of commenting on the overall acceptability of a draft agreement which was not open to any amendment. Nevertheless, to those who have chosen to call the consultation and assessment task "a charade or a farce we wish to say that their view was certainly not shared by the many Hong Kong people, in different parts of the com- munity, whom we were able to hear discussing, with care and concern, the draft agreement as a whole and all its contents.
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13. Secondly, the Assessment Office was a body without precedent. While maintaining our independence, we have closely observed it at work, watching and listening to its members as they discharged their functions. We have also shared in their experience of the public response to the draft agreement, and of the local reactions to the consultation and assessment
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