TNAG-1331-FCO40-1758-Future-of-Hong-Kong-test-of-the-acceptability-of-the-Joint-D-1984 — Page 147

CONFIDENTIAL

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

We present in our

consultation and assessment tasks.

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.

15.

Paragraph 5 (a) explained that the proper discharge

of the Assessment Office's duties must largely depend upon