60406    "Will employment of foreigners be accepted as before?" "Will we be eventually chased out by the influx of cheap female labor from the Chinese mainland?"

60407    Borongan says, "Our lives are directly connected to the 1997 reversion."

60408    There are also cases where employment has been terminated because the employer is moving overseas, or where the maid has moved with the employer to Canada.

60409    Many of the shotgun-wielding guardsmen posted in front of banks or jewelry shops in Hong Kong are Indian.

60410    Apparently there is a deep historical connection.

60411    In 1841, when Britain occupied Hong Kong during the Opium War, India was a British territory.

60412    When the Hong Kong police were established in 1844, discharged Indian military from the British territory were employed.

60413    Judging from pictures of that time, over half of the police were Indians with turbans.

60414    After administration of the colony of Hong Kong stabilized the police force came to be predominately Chinese, but with a reputation for keeping the peace, a large number of Indians are employed in the security sector even today.

60415    Certainly, of the Indians living in Hong Kong, it is not uncommon to be descended from police or Indian merchants who came to Hong Kong in the 19th century.

60416    The first foreign inhabitants of Hong Kong were Indians, and at present they number 25,000.

60417    The standard of Indian food in Hong Kong is said to be as high as the Chinese cuisine.

60418    Many Indian restaurants or Indian-affiliated businesses are located on Hollywood Road in the Central District, where the police station was located in the early colonial days.

60419    Raji Sitar, who with his family runs a trading company dealing in electrical appliances and watches on a corner of this street, was born in Hong Kong.

60420    He was brought up by a Chinese maid and attended an elementary school for Hong Kong children, so his Cantonese is native level and he can understand Mandarin as well.