26 Text : Christian Defrance

Chinese A valued labour force in the Great War

in the Ternoise valley, in Érin less racism”, suggests André and then in . Coilliot. “In February 1919, over five thousand Chinese Clearing the trenches from the colonial workforce From 1916 onwards the helped to clean up the region British and French suffered around , in places such terrible losses and so turned to as Boisleux, Boiry-Saint- China (which declared war on Martin, , Berles, Germany on 14 August 1917) Bienvillers, , for a vital labour force which D o u c h y - l è s - A y e t t e , they put to use mainly in ports. Ransart, and It appears that the French Rivière. Unfortunately, due were the first to “formalise a to the lack of surveillance, contract” for 50,000 workers, acts of pillage took place in which saw receive a the temporary camps.” Chinese contingent in July 1916. Following negotiations with The first Chinatown Peking, the British recruited In total, around two thousand an initial group of a thousand Chinese workers died in “strong peasants capable of , victims of illness, withstanding the differences bombardments and explo- in climate” from Weihai in sions while they were “clea- November 1916, and the Chinese ring” the trenches, a few exe- Labour Corps (CLC) was offi- cutions and above all Spanish cially established on 21 February flu. Between 1918 and 1923 1917. Over a thirteen-month the Chinese military autho- period, some 84,000 Chinese rities gradually sent their embarked on some extraordi- workers back to their nary journeys via South Africa, homeland. Between the Suez and Panama canals, two and three thou- Jamaica and New York! The main sand remained in Photo: Alain Jacques documentary collection route was across the Pacific: arriving France, taking to by ship on Vancouver Island (on the west their heels as they were being transported to coast of ), they would then make the the port of Marseille, and creating the first long journey by train to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Chinese district in the Ilot Chalon near the The Pas-de- is home to nine Chinese cemeteries, including those in , Saint-Etienne-au-Mont and , continue by boat to or , Gare de Lyon railway station in . The where the compatriots of this Chinese labourer (or “)” are laid to rest. cross the Channel from Folkestone to district has since disappeared, although a Boulogne-sur-Mer, before ending their plaque was unveiled on Rue Maurice-Denis journey by train to Noyelles-sur-Mer and the on 28 November 1988 “in homage to all or more than a half a century conference on the subject in 2008, which headquarters of the . those Chinese citizens – both workers André Coilliot has been took place in the Chinese city of Weihai, in The Chinese in the CLC didn’t wear a uni- and volunteers – who died for France.” Fcollecting “souvenirs” of all the province of (in the northeast form, and were split – at a distance of at least Did some of them stay in the Pas-de-Calais? shapes and sizes from the two world of the country), where the majority of the ten miles from the front – in companies of According to André Coilliot, “I recall one wars, including vehicles, uniforms, 95,000 Chinese who worked for the British five hundred men, each with its own British Chinese worker getting married in a vil- books etc. Although he has sold the army from 1917 to 1920 were recruited. major or captain, and an interpreter. Their lage in the south of the Artois region and majority of his “wartime treasure” 44,000 workers also made this long journey lives consisted of two meals a day, ten hours that he had a son !” to Avril Williams, an Englishwoman to work for the French army (the bay of of work a day, seven days a week, rest on who has opened a museum near Canton was a French enclave at the time). the days of festivals in the Chinese calendar, her tea-room in Auchonvillers in the André Coilliot takes out his “Chinese” file and a modest daily wage, part of which was Somme, this former railway worker and pulls out a photocopy of a map indica- sent back to China. from remains one of the ting the numerous camps – and cemeteries Although they occasionally worked in major figures with regard to “local – of the Chinese Labour Corps: Arques, kitchens and laundries, these workers history during the two conflicts”, , Berguette, Boulogne, Calais, were mainly responsible for loading and and is an acknowledged expert -, Érin, Étaples, Hardelot, unloading ships in ports, repairing roads on the “dark days of May 1940 in , , Ruminghem, Saint-Omer, and railway lines, building aerodromes etc. Arras” and on “Beaurains under , Tournehem, etc – At the end of the war, the Chinese filled in fire from 1914 to 1917”. He is also and there are still some missing. The camp trenches and bomb craters, searched for intrigued by the presence of Chinese in Bouvigny-Boyeffles has been rediscovered unexploded shells, cleared mines, salvaged workers in our département during and researched by Serge Thomas and his barbed wire, and “recovered” the mutilated the Great War. pupils in the school in Sains-en-Gohelle. To bodies of victims before burying them in their amazement, the school was inundated graves that they had already dug, in so doing “I noticed some tombstones with ideo- with stories. Hundreds of Chinese were playing their part in the creation of military grams on them in the cemetery in Ayette indeed based in Gohelle, in the Ternois cemeteries. During their “free time”, the and asked myself why they were there?” region. “In Érin they repaired tanks”, Chinese workers had a reputation as master This question has long gone unanswered, recalls André Coilliot. There was a huge fac- craftsmen in the trenches, creating beau- as the fortunes of Chinese labourers in our tory, and the tank museum in Bovington, in tiful objects made from bullets, grenades region have been barely researched – hardly England, has some photographs of Chinese and shells. “The Chinese who helped the at all, in fact. Things are starting to change, workers (51st, 69th and 90th companies) French were happier than their compa- A German soldier with Chinese prisoners. however: there was even a 3-day international from the Tank Central Workshops located triots who helped the British: there was Photo: Alain Jacques documentary collection