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Speaker: Mr Patten, 1996 is a key year for Hong Kong. As the Governor of Hong Kong, you personally, how would you rate as the highest item of priority to be dealt with?
Governor: I think the highest item is to give people as much reassurance as possible that 1997 isn't going to disrupt Hong Kong's way of life or Hong Kong's prosperity. A lot of people have said that 1996 is a year of decision. Well, in a sense, every year is a
year
of decision. But what do they really mean about 1996 being a year of decision? I think what they mean is that there are a lot of people here who have foreign passports it's reckoned that there may be as many as half-a-million and that a lot of those people will be wondering whether 1997 and the transition to Chinese sovereignty is going to be good for them or not.
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I think it's just as important that there are five-and-a-half million or more people who don't have a foreign passport who may be a bit concerned from time to time about what the future holds.
Now, I think that all of us have, during this year, to give the maximum reassurance first of all to ensure that those with foreign passports don't use them, that they choose to stay in Hong Kong. I'd like, also, many of those who have already left Hong Kong to come back and spend their lives here. That's what I always say to Hong Kong students when I meet them overseas. And I hope that we - and it's increasingly going to be a job for Chinese officials and those who advise Chinese officials - can give those who don't have a foreign passport, who will live in Hong Kong and want to make a success of 1997, I hope we can give them the reassurance as well.
Speaker: Well, it would appear that getting the confidence of the people of Hong Kong on the passport issue would be your top priority. However, in the past few days another matter of great concern to the people of Hong Kong is the question of Boat People. In 1996, what do you think will be the progress in resolving this problem?
Governor: I think we've got to remember that the progress over the years has been astonishing. Hong Kong has a marvellous record of dealing competently, firmly and humanely with a problem which has bedeviled the region for 15-16 years, ever since late 1970. Since then, I suppose it's true to say that about 200,000 or so Vietnamese Boat People have passed through Hong Kong. Many of those have been reckoned to be refugees and have been found homes elsewhere, in America, in the United Kingdom, in Canada and so on. Others have been screened-out as refugees, they're not refugees they're economic migrants, and we've been settling them, steadily, back in Vietnam.