20. But a judgment on the accuracy of a matter as complex as the views of the people of Hong Kong cannot be left at that. As Chapter 3 illustrates, an accurate assessment of "the extent of acceptance by the people of Hong Kong" involves a great deal more than a simple aggregation of the responses received from the many organisations and individuals that sub- mitted their views; and we have been impressed by the quality of the detailed analysis of views and surveys which the Assessment Office has made in the short time available for preparing its report. Our only concern is that the succinct general conclusion in paragraph 3.1 and the subsequent paragraphs of detailed analysis may not readily convey the total perspective of Hong Kong's reactions to the draft agreement as they emerge from the report as a whole.
21. As independent Monitors, who have shared all the evidence available to the Assessment Office, we therefore wish to complement the overall assessment in the report with some final words of our own.
22. The principal vehicle of response has been the remarkable range of submissions from the many organisations of Hong Kong; they have conveyed an overwhelming message of acceptance-accompanied by an 'agenda' of reservations, qualifications and questions, as summarised in Chapter 4, to be clarified or resolved in the years ahead. The response of individuals has been supplementary: most of those who have chosen to write have done so because they had something to say as individuals. They have, sometimes in moving terms, conveyed a more personal message, which has added texture and colour to the message of the organisations.
23. In brief, their message is this. Nobody in Hong Kong can escape the uncertainties of the future: those who have, or can acquire, a 'right of abode' elsewhere will take personal precautions in the short term while hoping for the best in Hong Kong in the long term. The minority who reject the draft agreement do so either because they can never accept reunification with Communist China or because they are bitter about the consequences for themselves as British Dependent Territories citizens. The majority who accept it do so chiefly because they regard reunification as inevitable and are relieved that the terms of the draft agreement are as good as they are.
24. But the verdict of acceptance implies neither positive enthusiasm nor passive acquiescence. The response to the Assessment Office has demonstrated the realism of the people of Hong Kong. They know that their future now lies in their own hands; and the widespread concern to be involved, as the Assessment Office report has highlighted, in the drafting of the Basic Law is a timely and important token of their wish to stand increasingly on their own political feet.
Dated this 24th day of November 1984.
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(PATRICK NAIRNE)
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(SIMON F. S. LI)