SEVNET
7
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 community, whom we were able to hear discussing,
with care and concern, the draft agreement as a whole
and all its contents.
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 tasks. We present in
our Conclusions our considered judgment on the way in
which the Assessment Office has discharged its terms of
reference; but we would like to pay tribute here to the
quality of the staff of the Office, and to the integrity
and conscientiousness with which the Commissioner and
all his colleagues have done their job.
CONCLUSIONS
14.
We wish to record first that we are fully satisfied
that the Assessment Office has performed its duties impartially
-
in the manner in which it had discharged
its terms of reference as a whole, and in the balanced
way in which it has assessed the views of those who are
unwilling, as well as of those who are willing, to accept
the draft agreement.