4.
Prime Minister: The guarantee today is more specific and a good deal harder. What was said in the past that we would look favourably upon those applications. That doesn't necessarily mean in given circumstances that that would be granted in any sense. What I'm saying today is that where those people have a well founded fear that it is necessary for them to leave Hong Kong, we won't just look favourably upon their application. What I have offered them in those circumstances is a cast iron guarantee that they will be able to come to the United Kingdom. So it is ---
Question (Sally Blyth, Eastern Express): Well why not just offer them British passports then?
Prime Minister: So it is a good deal firmer than anything we have seen in the past. 1 am not in the position to go further than that.
Question (S F Yeo, HK Economic Times): We just heard that we will have visa-free for the SAR passport holders and at present, officially, the British passport holder, I mean the Hong Kong ones, will not need to have a visa to land in Britain, but your Government and the immigration authorities in Hong Kong advise people of Hong Kong to take a visa first. So will you apply the same sort of policy towards the SAR passport?
Prime Minister: Well, in future people with an SAR passport certainly will not need a visa when they are coming to United Kingdom. That's not a short-term position, that's the position that I announced today. That wasn't the position before today. It is the position after today. I think it will make a material difference, a beneficial difference to many people who visit the United Kingdom from Hong Kong. Nobody should sniff around and try and find something in the undergrowth that isn't as it appears on the surface. What I said this morning should be taken at it's face value. Visas will not be required by holders of an SAR passport visiting the United Kingdom.
Question (S F Yeo, HK Economic Times): How about the BN(O) holders?
Governor: One at a time.
Question (Stanley Ma, HK Metro News): There are many persons
Governor: .... what about Francis Moriarty?
Question (Stanley Ma, HK Metro News): There have been many persons and organisations in Hong Kong
Speaker (?): It is Francis pretending....