SOME of the people queueing for a copy of the White Paper yesterday believed the account of the talks would make good bedtime reading.
Others, with Hong Kong's eye for pragmatism, hoped the paper might one day become a collectors' item.
Dozens of people queued outside the distribution booths at the Government Publications Sales Centre and Government Information Services headquarters in Central as the copies of the document were distributed from 5 pm.
Each person was allowed only one copy.
Shanghai-born Chan Koon-hung, 79, who fled from the mainland after the communist takeover, said: ''I have no confidence in the communists. I want to know what rubbish they have got up to during the talks.
''The game is over now. And getting an account of what the talks have been about seems useless. But anyway, I think it makes a good bedtime reading,'' he said.
A third-year student at City Polytechnic, Adam Chan, 23, smartly dressed for a job interview, did not know until he got a copy exactly what the paper was about.