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The Secretary of State said that there were various ways in which the monitors in theory could carry out their work, ranging from a purely audit role to something like the Pearce Commission in Rhodesia. Our view of the proper role of monitors was somewhere inbetween, but much closer to the audit function than the Pearce Commission example. Sir Patrick Nairne said that he was honoured that the Secretary of State had asked him to take on this function. He was anxious to do it properly. He had been greatly impressed by the progress made in the negotiations with the Chinese Government. He also thought that the outline of procedure for the Assessment Office (Hong Kong telegram No 2618) was very good. He agreed that it would be of great importance for Parliament that the assessment and monitoring process should be seen to have been carried out properly. He thought that there would need to be a good deal of PR work by the Hong Kong Government to explain the agreement to the Hong Kong people. He agreed that it was right to keep the PR function and the assessment function entirely separate. He was very interested in the Secretary of State's views on how the monitors and Assessment Office should conduct their work.
The Secretary of State said that the essential point was for the monitors to ensure that the Assessment Office carried out its work, properly, objectively and efficiently. The consultative process had in fact already begun, at least in April this year if not before, through the Secretary of State's statements in Hong Kong. As the negotiations had proceeded, the British Government had taken account of the feed-back of Hong Kong reactions to the various statements which had been made.
Sir Patrick Nairne asked whether the Secretary of State foresaw any particular opposition to the agreement coming from particular sections of Hong Kong society. He added that he thought the reaction generally would be
'yes' or at worst 'Yes, but'. The Secretary of State said that it was difficult to foresee what kind of opposition there might be. The reactions of the Hong Kong people so far to the statements which had been made had been generally favourable, especially following the visit in July. He supposed that there might be a small group of die-hard expatriate British who would be opposed to any agreement as a sell-out. Some of the Hong Kong Chinese, who were poised between making their lives in Hong Kong or settling elsewhere, might be inclined to say that the agreement should have been more comprehensive. But on the whole the reaction so far had been very reasonable. Sir Patrick Nairne asked what would happen if there was period of difficulty in the assessment process: in
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