Governor's pressure

GOVERNOR Chris Patten does not earn unqualified praise every day. But he deserves full marks for his enthusiastic advocacy of visa-free entry to Britain for Special Administrative Region (SAR) passport-holders. Mr Patten, unusually, has adopted a cause that puts him on the same side as Beijing. In contrast to his recent advocacy of United Kingdom passports for all Hong Kong people, there is a good chance of his winning the argument.

Privately, the Foreign Office concedes it will be hard to refuse a request to grant visa-free entry to HK SAR passport-holders - provided Britain receives satisfactory guarantees about who will be issued with them. As Mr Patten pointed out, unless London takes the lead in granting visa-free privileges, it will be almost impossible to persuade other countries to do so. This denial of support for Hong Kong people would, in the Governor's words, mark a dismal end to British rule.

Yet intense opposition can still be expected from the Home Office, which recently scrapped visa-free entry for citizens from some former Commonwealth countries. This is where Mr Patten's 'strong and determined' advocacy of the issue, in his meeting with Home Secretary Michael Howard last week, may prove to be most valuable.

But one thing which will not help this effort to ensure Hong Kong people can continue to travel freely overseas after 1997 is the suggestion by Preliminary Working Committee Security sub-group co-convener Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai of a tit-for-tat policy - an idea previously canvassed by some mainland officials. Under this approach, foreign nationals' right of visa-free entry to post-1997 Hong Kong would be linked to whether their home countries afforded similar privileges to SAR passport-holders.

While such a policy might seem superficially reasonable, it is at odds with the relaxed immigration policy that has contributed so much to the territory's success as an international city. It would also be devastating to the local tourism industry, now the second biggest foreign exchange earner. It benefits greatly from the present ease of access for overseas visitors. The best way to make the SAR passport internationally acceptable lies in persuasion rather than veiled threats against foreign nationals. China has gone a long way towards making it a credible travel document; it should now offer reassurances that the passports will be issued only to Hong Kong people and not used as a backdoor means for mainland cadres to travel overseas. Once those are given, Britain will have no excuse not to respond to Mr Patten's pressure.