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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.
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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.