Trench Art and the Story of the Chinese Labour Corps in the Great

Home , Chinese Labour Corps, Eastern Promises, Fabian Ware

First published on the occasion of the exhibition Western Front – Eastern Promises Photography, trench art and iconography of the Chinese Labour Corps in the Great War hosted at The Brunei Gallery, SOAS University of London 1st October to 12th December 2020

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the permission of the publisher, James Gordon-Cumming.

Front cover: Collecting stores for the long journey ahead © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy

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Contents A New Republic ...... 5 A War Like No Other ...... 7 The Chinese Solution ...... 9 The Journey to Europe ...... 10 Across Canada ...... 13 In support of the war machine ...... 14 From Labourer to Engineer ...... 18 Nowhere is too far from the Front Line ...... 21 No 1 Chinese Hospital ...... 24 Leisure time ...... 26 Gambling...... 28 An Unexpected Visitor ...... 29 Discipline, Prison and an Escape ...... 30 Working with the War Graves Commission ...... 32 The Post-War Period: The Clear Up Begins ...... 33 Returning Civilians ...... 35 The 1919 Peace Conference ...... 36 The End of the Corps and the Return to China ...... 37 The bronze British War Medal ...... 39 What is trench art? ...... 40 CLC Trench Art ...... 42 Chinese Iconography On Trench Art ...... 43 More Chinese labourer trench art ...... 52 The first masters of trench art? ...... 60 William James Hawkings ...... 62 End Notes ...... 63

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A New Republic On 1st January 1912, after more than two thousand years of Imperial rule, the Republic of China was born, ending a century of unrest under the decaying Qing dynasty that had lasted since 1644.

Representatives of all the provinces had gathered in Nanjing on 29th December 1911 and elected Sun Yat-Sen to be China’s first President. He was inaugurated on 1 January, the first day of the First Year of the Republic. Sun had been involved in the revolutionary movement in China since the late 1880s and was credited with having kept the spirit of revolution alive over the preceding twenty years. Sun Yat-Sen, first President of China

120 representatives from the provinces formed a provisional National Assembly of the Republic of China, to act as the parliament for the new Republic, in anticipation of formal elections happening when they could be arranged.

The army, however, remained loyal to Emperor Puyi and the Qing Court. To avoid a bloody fight to remove the old order and firmly establish the new Republic, Yuan Shikai, head of the army, was promised the position of President if he could convince the Qing Court to abdicate. This he managed to do and Emperor Puyi abdicated on 12th February. Sun Yat-Sen duly stood down and Yuan became

the Republic’s President Yuan Shikai, on 10th March 1912. second President of China

In August 1912, Song Jiaoren formed a new party, the Kuomintang (KMT), to bring together the main Sun- supporting parties. The National Assembly was then

divided between KMT members and supporters of

Song Jiaoren, KMT leader 5 Yuan Shikai. Page

During December 1912, and January 1913, the first democratic elections were held in the Republic, electing the members to the newly founded Senate and House of Representatives. The election was considered a great success for KMT, who won 45% of seats in both the lower House and the Senate. Their success, however, was seen as a threat to Yuan and detrimental to Yuan’s power as President. Yuan had no intention of relinquishing his power after less than a year as President.

On 20th March 1913, the leader of the KMT party, Song Jiaoren, was assassinated. He was shot twice, at close range, at the Shanghai railway station by a lone gunman on the orders of a Shanghai underworld boss, Ying Guixin. Guixin was the leader of the infamous Green Gang, who controlled the opium and prostitution trades and organised crime in the whole of Shanghai. Guixin also had close links to the Yuan Shikai regime. Ying Guixin After the removal of Song Jiaoren, Yuan Shikai quickly began to consolidate his power, leading to the opposition rising up in the failed ‘Second Revolution’ in July and August 1913. Victorious, Yuan took control of many of the republican organisations created in 1912. Those he could not control, he ignored. China effectively descended into a military dictatorship, with Yuan eventually declaring himself Emperor of China in 1915. Under Yuan’s dictatorship the republic began to fragment, with regions declaring themselves independent and, eventually, Yuan was forced to abdicate in 1916, leaving the Republic as little more than a group of warlord-led regions, only nominally ruled by an ineffectual military government in Beijing.

By this stage, the eyes of the world were firmly fixed on the war now raging in Europe. China, after its brief emergence as a new Republic, once again began to disappear from view.

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A War Like No Other The war that erupted in Europe in 1914 was 1914: uniquely catastrophic; an ill-prepared-for clash of The war they expected nineteenth century army tactics and experience with twentieth century mass-produced weapons. A total war, incorporating massive volunteer and conscripted citizen armies. Fighting the static, trench-based war that had developed by the end of 1914 hugely favours the defender. Germany sought to build an impenetrable wall that the French and British armies would be repeatedly forced to assault in order to remove the invaders from the occupied territory. The German Chief of General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn intended to “bleed France white” in so doing.

France bore the brunt of the fighting through 1914 and 1915 and by the end of 1915, had lost almost Postcard published by Raphael Tuck & Co a million men, either killed, captured or missing.

Even before 1914, the potential shortage of labour in the event of a 1917: large-scale war had been identified The war they fought and France had already considered the concept of Chinese labour. The idea had not been welcomed by the French working community, however, citing concerns that it would lead to a decline in wage levels, although Union objections were thought to be “more by workmen who were reluctant to make close acquaintance with life in To the Last Man, by R D Westwood; © Author’s collection the trenches than by fear of Chinese cheap labour”, according to David Robertson, the British military attaché in Peking.

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The scale of the French losses in 1914 and 1915 simply could not be replaced domestically and Lt Col Georges Truptil was sent to China to organise the recruitment of 70,000 men in January 1916. After some delays, an agreement was signed in May with a newly created commercial entity, Huimin, to recruit 50,000 men, with the first contingent of 1,711 men setting out from China on the SS Empire in July 1916.

“China and France are at peace and how could it be possible to prevent the free passage of travellers between the two countries…. It must be clearly understood that the French Government has no official part in the recruiting of Chinese labour: it is purely private enterprise.” North-China Herald, 7th October 1916

Unfortunately, in October 1916, an unrelated diplomatic incident, the Laoxikai Incident, arose. A small parcel of Chinese land that the French wanted to utilise, alongside their Tianjin concession, was effectively annexed by French troops after the French became impatient in the negotiations to control it jointly with the Chinese. The resulting furore led to the Huimin company being wound up and labour recruitment was halted.

It wasn’t until 1st January 1917 that a new contract could be arranged by the French, recruiting in a different region of China, Guangdong.

For the British, by the summer of 1916, the Battle of the Somme had been launched. The tally of British casualties by the end of August 1916 - those killed, wounded or missing - had reached 800,000 men. The pressing need for men at the Front was draining the back areas. Ports, as well as transport, salvage, repair and supply networks risked collapse without the contribution of labourers from overseas.

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The Chinese Solution The forecasts for the manpower necessary for the planned offensives in 1917 finally persuaded Britain to follow France’s lead and approach the Chinese nation. By October 1916, arrangements were secretly being made to recruit 50,000 men in the British-leased territory of Weihaiwei. The British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, still refused to answer direct questions on the subject in the House of Commons as late as 28th November 1916, despite the London Gazette reporting the assignment of Lt-Col Bryan Fairfax to command a “Chinese Labour Corps” in their edition of 14th November.

CLC Recruits awaiting embarkation at Weihaiwei © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy

“After the flood which devastated a large part of Chihli and Shantung provinces in 1917 I was left penniless with not enough property to support the many mouths which belonged to my family. The British were calling for Chinese… for service in France, so I volunteered.” Unknown CLC recruit

After a few months of basic training delivered by British Army officers who had some level of knowledge of the language, the first contingent of Chinese labourers left on 18th January 1917, travelling south via South Africa. This route, however, was extremely long, taking a full three months at sea, with few opportunities to take on fresh food. Additionally, the threat from German submarines also meant that minimising the distance to be transported by sea,

rather than land, was also a priority. 9

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The Journey to Europe

The Athos Disaster

French contemporary postcard The French steamship Athos set sail from Hong Kong at the end of January 1917, coming around India and up through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean with perhaps 1,000 Chinese on board. After picking up more passengers at Port Said, mainly Senegalese troops, on 17th February they were steaming from Port Said across to Marseille, just passing Malta, when they were struck by a torpedo from the German submarine U-65. Of the 2,000 souls on board, 754 lives were lost, including 543 Chinese.

All the paperwork relating to the Chinese labourers on board is believed to have been carried on the ship, meaning the French authorities had no way of knowing who was on board, who had drowned and who their next of kin were. This was a deeply painful lesson.

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“On approaching the big boat, my heart beat fast in fear for I saw with dismay that the boat was already full. Yet we climbed on board and were led down many stairs till I was sure we were near the bottom of the sea… When I climbed back up, the shore was no longer in sight. I had left home.” CLC recruit

With the Mediterranean route deemed too dangerous and the passage around the Cape of Good Hope too long, the British began transporting their labourers via Canada, taking them by ship to Vancouver, then by train across to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where they would board steamers for the last leg of their passage across the Atlantic. In all, the journey would Routes to France – via Canada, in red, being the most used by the British take some six weeks.

Even the Atlantic route was not without risk. Laurence Salisbury, accompanying a contingent of labourers on their journey, recalled an attack on the troopship SS Justicia in the Atlantic in early 1918:

“Suddenly men on our decks saw something hurling through the waves towards the stern; too late to warn the captain, who was at the wheel. And then, at that moment, the course of the ship demanded a slight veer to port. The torpedo, instead of crashing into the ship, slipped past by the narrowest of margins. Not yet were the coolies to become guests of heaven.”

The convoys of ships had a strictly specified zig-zag course; it was this pre- determined shift to port that had miraculously saved them.

Around 80,000 Chinese labourers came to France via the Canada route, with

no ships lost.

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Boarding the Empress of Russia for the journey to Canada © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy

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Across Canada The five-day rail journey across Canada was done as discretely as possible. The reason for this secrecy, officially, was the critical nature of this supply line and the disruption that would be caused had the German Navy begun a concerted submarine campaign against the transport ships.

A Head Tax on Chinese immigrants was also in force in Canada. To avoid its imposition it was agreed that, during the journey, the labourers would not be able to leave their individual carriages. There was also a wish, by Canadian authorities, to avoid any contact between the labourers and the existing Chinese community in Canada, lest there should be problems with more radical elements of the latter.

Each carriage on these “silk trains” had a supply of drinking water and a small stove that the men used to cook their food. At stops along the route, officers would be plied with money by the men to buy apples, candles and other items from the towns. The rest of the time the men would stare out at the strange new countryside passing them, amazed at the snow-capped mountains of the Canadian Rockies, or would play draughts, play musical instruments, or chat.

CLC men aboard a Canadian Pacific Railway train at a halt en route 13 © The David Livingstone Collection; from 'Harry Livingstone's Forgotten Men: Canadians and the Chinese Labour Corps in the First World War', published by James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Toronto Page

In support of the war machine On 21st February 1917 the British Army’s Chinese Labour Corps was officially formed, headed by Lt- Colonel Bryan Fairfax. They set up their headquarters at Noyelles-sur-Mer.

The CLC took responsibility for many logistical tasks, from unloading ships at the French ports and loading trains and lorries with stores and equipment.

“Faith must be kept with them, and under no circumstances should they be required to do extra work on completion of the day’s set task.” From ‘Notes on Chinese Labour’, 1918.

As an example of this, Brigadier General W R Ludlow’s diary notes how the Chinese were Lt.-Colonel Bryan Charles Fairfax Photo courtesy Serena Sparks contracted to produce a set number of yards of duck boards – the name given to the lengths of wooden slats used as the floor of trenches and for pathways across muddy ground. Their target was based upon a twelve-hour day, but the men did their work so fervently that they would finish by four o’clock and “would not do a stroke of work beyond that hour, but chose to gamble and smoke the rest of the time.” Ludlow recounts how an inspector came around and was furious to find them idle, but his protests were absolutely useless.

“They were by far the best working men that we had in the war zone… Not only were they excellent physical specimens but they showed a willingness and eagerness to work that made them specially valuable.” YMCA officer

12th Company, CLC, working at Calais docks 14 © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy Page

12th Company, CLC, working at Calais docks © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy

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“There were at one time daily thefts of mutton, in the form of whole carcasses, from a French port where the Chinese labour battalions were working. An acquaintance of mine tells me that he detected the method employed… In the dusk, under the eyes of many watchers, the Chinese smuggled out sheep and sheep by clapping on the carcass a Chinese hat and jacket, squeezing their mutton between them in the ranks and marching him out!” Alfred Sheppard

Lt Jim Maultsaid was an officer with the 169th Company, Chinese Labour Corps. His illustrated diaries follow the ebbs and flows of action on the front line as demand for supplies fluctuated. During the German Spring Offensive, in March 1918, their work became frantic.

“Every few hours brought us fresh orders. Orders for petrol for tanks, for motor lorries, for ambulance vans, and the air force. Oils of all sorts wanted at once – always at once – coal for the ROD [Railway Ordnance Dept], stores of all kinds – guns, ammunition, fodder for the horses, blankets, bully beef, biscuits, bags of potatoes. All these were handled by the Chinese Labour Corps. Packed in big trucks or lorries as required for the railhead dump, we slaved from morning light until far into the night – and often during the hours of darkness as well.” Diary of Lt Jim Maultsaid, 169th Company, CLC

CLC men loading sandbags © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy 16 Page

Then, in the final hundred days, from August 1918 onward, as the Allies were sweeping the German army back towards the German border, the CLC was critical to maintaining the pace of the advance.

“During these months of August, September, October and November 1918, we were tested and tried to the very uttermost, in fact to the verge of collapse in our efforts to meet all the calls that came down the line for our goods. Never did I see human beings work as we worked those Chinese boys of ours, during those months.”

“Petrol! More and more! Speed! Urgent! At once! 3,000 – 4,000 – 5,000… 9,000 cases of petrol. Daily – nightly… Come on boys! Qua-qui, qua-qui. Quicker – quicker. NINE THOUSAND WANTED today. I gasp at the order. The morning breaks 4.30am. We shiver in the sharp air. A new day begins. Slog, slash, crash, bang, bang, morning drifts into the evening, evening into night. Dazed, tired bodies flit about in the gloom. At last the task is ended. Leaden steps as we drag our wearied bodies homewards. A messenger meets us from HQ. Special order THREE THOUSAND MORE. My G**! About turn! We almost pushed them, poor, poor boys – too tired to protest, they humbly obeyed. Midnight. One hundred figures crawl along the canal-bank and fade into the gloom.” Diary of Lt Jim Maultsaid, 169th Company, CLC

“As porters, too, they were beyond rivalry; and their contempt for the German prisoners’ capacity in this direction was amusing. A Chinese coolie, watching two prisoners handle a stack of cased goods, could not at last contain himself. He walked up to them, saying: ‘Hun no damn good,’ and proceeded to show them how it should be done.” Mary Augusta Ward

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From Labourer to Engineer More skilled groups of Chinese men soon began to work as aircraft and tank engineers, maintaining and repairing these critical elements of the offensive and defensive roles of the British Expeditionary Force in France.

The Central Tank Workshops

The first Chinese arrived at the Central Tank Workshops in Erin in the Ternoise Valley in August 1917. This was the 51st Chinese Labour Company, with 470 skilled Chinese tradesmen. A further Company, the 69th, arrived in September and the 90th Company came in October. At the end of October orders came through for the men to create 450 fascines. These were huge, 1.8 tonne bundles of brushwood, 3m long and over 3m in diameter. Each bundle of wood would be bound tightly together with steel chains, pulled tight between two customised tanks pulling in opposite directions.

“Each fascine was pushed through the mud to the railway track by twenty of these Chinese coolies, chanting a weirdly monotonous refrain. The steadiness of their work was fully shown on one occasion when no less than 144 fascines were loaded onto trucks in twenty-four hours.” Lt Frank Mitchell MC, Tank Corps

British tanks loaded with fascines used to cross trenches © IWM Q 46931

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During this period, 127 damaged tanks, mainly recovered from the fighting around Ypres, as the Passchendaele offensive ground to a halt, were transported to the Erin workshops for overhaul and repair ready for future use.

“This work entailed considerably more skill and labour than the initial assembly of the machines in the home factories on account of the shattered and burnt-out condition many of these machines were reduced to.” Maj-Gen John F C Fuller CB CBE DSO, Tank Corps

Damaged tanks awaiting repair at Erin © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy After the failure of the Third Battle of Ypres to provide the breakthrough that had been hoped for, the Battle of Cambrai, with the first use of massed tanks, would provide some positive results, with the German’s seemingly impregnable Hindenburg Line being breached for the first time. Since their success far exceeded expectations, the British forces were too slow to capitalise fully on the breakthrough, but the moral effect was substantial.

“[T]he Central Workshops were working 22½ hours out of every 24 without a break and had it not been for the ‘grit’ displayed by all ranks the Battle of Cambrai could not have been fought, and without this battle the whole course of the war might have been changed.” Maj-Gen John F C Fuller CB CBE DSO, Tank Corps

173rd Company eventually replaced the 90th Company, with the 91st and 173rd

then remaining at Erin well after the armistice, engaged in breaking down tanks to recover the engines and other recyclable components. 19 Page

Many of the empty shells of the tanks were delivered to towns and cities around Britain, to stand proudly in town squares and parks for much of the inter-war period.

A burnt-out British Mark 1 tank left on the Somme battlefield since 1916 © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy

Tank displayed in Lowestoft, England after the war From postcard published by The Photochrom Co. Ltd 20

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Nowhere is too far from the Front Line While the Chinese labourers’ status as ‘non-military’ meant officially that they should be working well away from the Front Line and the danger of enemy attack, the increasing range of aircraft, airships and artillery meant that, by 1917 when they arrived, nowhere in northern France or Belgium was immune from attack.

“Now and again… the long-range Bosche gun on the railway would put a shell or two over Poperinghe, and it happened once that one exploded within a hundred yards or so of the Chinks’ encampment, whereupon they fled in all directions, and it took about a fortnight or so to round them up again.” Henry Savage

Eventually the men became more accustomed to the appearance of German aircraft, with their curiosity and acquisitive habits overtaking their fear on occasion.

“[In a daylight raid, the Chinese] merely stopped their work in order to gaze better at the altitudinous Germans, and when a bit of shrapnel whizzed to earth the coolies would pounce on it, laughingly crying out, ‘plenty souvenir-la.’” Laurence Salisbury

On 21st March 1918, the German army threw everything into one final push, Operation Michael, to secure a decisive victory over the Allies before the US Army arrived in force on the Western Front. Their hammer blow fell upon a relatively quiet part of the line at St Quentin, held by the British 5th Army, under General Sir Hubert Gough. After playing a leading role in the savagery of the Third Battle of Ypres in the summer and autumn of 1917, the men of the Fifth Army were quite happy to take over a section of the line, previously held by the French, that had developed a clear ‘live and let live’ approach between the opposing forces. At 4.40am on that misty morning, however, the peace was shattered as thousands of German guns opened an inferno of fire along fifty miles of the front line. After five hours the bombardment had done its work and a wave of German storm troops swept forward, pushing the remaining British fighters into retreat. The German’s initial success was spectacular. By the end of the day they had pushed the British line back more than three miles.

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Under this lightening advance, formerly safe ‘back areas’ became the front line as the German tide swept towards them.

“During the first wild fury of the last German offensive in lower Picardy, when a break was so nearly made in the English lines, a detachment of Chinese demolishing a bridge were caught face to face with the on-rushing Huns… Instead of surrendering they fought stubbornly with picks and shovels against the bayonets of their foes. Some of them picked up the rifles of dead men and fired them in the faces of the Germans. After a number of Chinese had been killed, the detachment was rescued by the British.” Frederic Haskin, New London Telegraph, 21st September 1918

German aircraft could obviously also reach camps far behind the lines and, during the Spring Offensive, they were keen to disrupt the Allies supply lines as much as they could. On 12th April 1918 a Gotha raid bombed the area around the CLC camp at Reningelst, with one bomb falling in the Chinese camp itself, killing three labourers. This demanded retribution…

“German aircraft came over and bombed us… and some of the bombs fell in the coolies’ compound and caused a few casualties. Next day… as soon as they’d eaten their rice, a party sloped off, stole some Mills grenades from a nearby dump and threw them into the [German] prison camp. There was a hell of a row about it, but it was quite impossible to identify the culprits, and no one could be punished.” Corporal Martin ‘Two-gun’ Cohen, CLC

“At home they had thought the West was all missionaries, now they thought we were all fighters.” George H Cole, YMCA representative in France

“All these sad or stirring sights of war left the Chinese coolie unmoved… The sound of the Highland bagpipe was another matter. As one man, the Chinese dropped their tools, and rushed to the roadside… clapping their hands in appreciation of music which, in their opinion, was really worth listening to.” Lt-Colonel Lewis Oatts, DSO, Highland Light Infantry

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‘Jimmy’ outside the CLC camp at Noyelles © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy

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No 1 Chinese Hospital The hospital at Noyelles-sur-Mer opened in March 1917. Originally consisting of six marquees, it eventually became a 1,500-bed hospital, including six 50- bed surgical wards, an x-ray unit, laboratories and even a large kitchen garden supplying fresh vegetables to the patients. Produce from this garden even won seven prizes at the British Agricultural Show in Abbeville in 1918!

Knowing how fond the Chinese were of birds, the Commanding Officer at the hospital managed to acquire enough canaries to have one, in its own cage, in each ward.

Outside, a fifteen-foot pagoda was built, painstakingly painted in the bright colours of a pagoda back home in China. This had a clock and a gong, which was used to chime the hours of the day.

The success of the hospital rested on instilling Western medical standards of cleanliness into the patients. The main cause of fatalities in the CLC was disease, with tuberculosis the main cause.

The pagoda outside the hospital at Noyelles © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy “In every case the greatest care is taken to provide for the comfort and cleanliness of the men. The Chinaman who would by nature prefer picturesque but unsanitary chaos in his domicile, has taken very kindly to British theories of

order and sanitation.” H. Russell Wakefield, author and Captain, Royal Scots Fusiliers 24 Page

Chinese General Hospital No 1 © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy While not fatal, the most common ailment amongst the labourers was eye disease, trachoma and conjunctivitis in particular. Trachoma, “that plague of China”, was one of the world’s leading causes of preventable blindness. Poor hygiene is a major cause, and regular eye inspections and preventative eye drops were part of the regime in the CLC.

In contrast, the Chinese were affected less by the influenza pandemic of 1918/1919 than Europeans, perhaps due to a level of immunity borne from exposure to similar strains of the virus in China in the years prior to the war. While the pandemic in Europe is thought to have originated at the Fort Riley training camp in Kansas and brought to Europe by American soldiers, the virus may, in turn, have been brought to Fort Riley by Chinese workers sent to work at the camp in early 1918.

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Leisure time

Kite-making Competition © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy While their contracts required the men to work every day, with only a few days off for Chinese New Year and other national holidays, weekly time-off was later introduced and the men had free time to engage in other activities, aside from gambling, of course.

“The YMCA huts – think of a Christian Association for Confucians! – are supplied with phonographs and moving pictures: the Celestials show a strong preference for the elemental humour of the custard pie hero of the half-moustache and uncouth feet.” Arthur S Riggs, in letter to the Bishop of Exeter

The Chinese were also great fans of theatrical performances, not only to watch, but also eager to perform and help to prepare for. At the Calais camp, a grand production was prepared by a troupe led by Chen Liting, to be performed at the YMCA hut.

“For the first performance 100 Chinese from a neighbouring camp got up at 4am, walked sixteen miles to see the show and after it, at 9.30pm, walked back, reaching home at three o’clock in the morning to be on duty again that day.” “Four men who had arranged to gamble that night… [had] called it off and gone to the show. This was accomplishing just what we planned.” George Cole, YMCA representative

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Great preparations were also made for the New Year celebrations themselves, with dragon costumes, stilt walkers and all manner of performance art on show.

“Apparently, they had a perfect passion for European hats, and whenever they had the opportunity they would buy a hat, and wearing particularly bowler hats seemed to become a status symbol.” 2/Lt A B W Fletcher, Army Ordnance Corps

“There is never any room for doubt when a coolie is singing. He seems determined that everybody within a pretty wide radius shall be made aware of it.” Unidentified CLC Officer

“One day the Tommy corporal in charge of the Chinese coolies told my wife that the Chinese were a hopeless, ignorant crowd. She asked him why, and his reply was that for months he had been trying to teach them how to make tea and they wouldn’t listen – they would drink it so weak!” Staff Sergeant Frederick Hornibrook, New Zealand Expeditionary Force

27 A musical performance by 103rd Company © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy Page

Gambling The Chinese were renowned for their love of gambling. This was a key reason why their wages were separated, with a portion being given to the men each week, while the remainder was paid directly to their family in China to avoid it being squandered in France and families at home suffering as a result.

Despite being banned, gambling was rife and they would gamble on everything and anything.

“They gambled on the amount of the fine [for gambling] I would award a prisoner.” James Burlington Rigg in the Quebec Telegraph, 20th May 1920

“Yuan comes into our office for money. He hands me his deposit book and asks for five hundred francs. I am struck by the sadness on his face and by the size of the sum he has requested. ‘My brother lost one thousand francs gambling last night. The winners are pressing him for money. The five hundred francs will prevent a fight.’” YMCA secretary

Men of 30th Company playing Chinese chess © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy 28 Page

An Unexpected Visitor

A visitor to Bourbourg © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy In 1919, this two-seater bomber aircraft, an Airco DH9, landed in the field beside the BourBourg camp where Lt Hawkings was working with No. 30 Company, CLC, breaking down German munitions.

The plane was from Number 110 Squadron, who, in this post-war period had been designated to delivering the Army Post Office mail across France and Germany. Whether the pilot was short on fuel, or simply lost and needed to ask for directions, is not clear, but the men welcomed the distraction from their mundane day to help turn the

Discipline, Prison and an Escape As with any military operation, military discipline was imposed on the CLC just as it was for any other unit operating in France. While they were subject to military law under the Army Act, the Chinese attitude to rules and regulations was somewhat less strict than soldiers who had been through military training.

The Commanding Officer of a CLC Company would hold military tribunals for less serious crimes, with punishments usually being fines, or periods of detention – up to 28 days could be awarded by a C.O.

“If you ever saw twenty or thirty coolies lining up for trial for crime, and listened to their pleadings and witnesses lying and counter-lying you would say that a C.O. had to have a very good temper. Cases of loafing at work, fighting, striking white men, smoking when handling ammunition, throwing Mills grenades at each other, stealing from French or Belgian shops, feigning sickness, inciting to mutiny, refusing to work because the rice was badly cooked, their motto being ‘no rice, no work’, gambling.” James Burlington Rigg in the Quebec Telegraph, 20th May 1920

The segregated prison area at Bourbourg © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy

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The search party out looking for the escaped prisoners © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy

31 House to house enquiries © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy Page

Working with the War Graves Commission The Chinese Cemetery at Noyelles contains 841 graves, with almost a thousand other CLC men buried in Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries elsewhere in France.

While the original burials were marked with wooden crosses, painted by their follow labourers, eventually these were replaced with the Portland stone headstones common to all those who fell in the war. Maintaining the close companionship with their fallen comrades, but also to ensure the Chinese text was correct, sixty men of the CLC were used by the Imperial War Graves Commission to carve the headstones for the Chinese Labour Corps graves across France. At Noyelles, CLC men also set the new headstones in place.

A CLC funeral at Noyelles © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy A wooden grave marker

The Post-War Period: The Clear Up Begins “After many months of constant fatigue duty behind the lines, the Armistice came, but it meant no release for the Chinese. My Company continued for a year rolling up the barbed wire, picking up the shells and wreckage and duds, and levelling the trenches.” Luther Carrington Goodrich, US Army

Once the Armistice had been signed and the armies began to return home, the CLC became the main labour force clearing the battlefields, filling in hundreds of miles of trenches, dugouts and craters; clearing acres of rusting, entangled barbed wire, removing all the surface debris, the unexploded shells, the wreckage and, of course, the bodies. The men of the CLC also helped to consolidate battlefield graves as the work of the Imperial War Graves Commission under Fabian Ware was finally able to really get to work.

A key role was the dismantling of thousands of tons of ammunition left in France by the departed armies of all nations. Everything from rifle bullets to colossal artillery shells and mortars had to be carefully broken down into their component parts to be recycled or destroyed.

30th Company men dismantling explosives © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy “All around stretched rows and rows of big guns. Hundreds of tanks, some new, some badly dented from battles of history now. Stacks of machine guns. Long lines of light filled artillery, limbers, GS wagons. Stacks of harness. But why go on? It was war material everywhere as far as the eye could reach and it was all to be loaded up for transhipment home. For scrap! This stuff cost millions and now was not worth thousands.” Diary of Lt Jim Maultsaid, 169th Company, CLC 33 Page

Unstable munitions would be transported to the Channel coast and safely detonated in controlled explosions.

Demolition team at Oye-Plage near Calais, gathered at their protective bunker © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy

Preparing the explosive charge The explosion

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Returning Civilians As French and Belgian residents returned to their shattered villages to begin their lives again, the presence of the Chinese labourers increasingly became a point of friction, with the Chinese workers being blamed for many of the crimes and misfortunes that befell the locals.

“In our devastated areas, neither the presence of the Chinese nor their work with us is any cause for celebration… Their productivity is low, and they are increasingly inclined to turn to crime and debauchery.” Marcel Henard

“All the Chinese have spread terror among the working people of the district. They go about pilfering daily, and the inhabitants daren’t complain for fear of reprisal. The Chinese simply enter whatever house they want, and don’t care at all what others think of them. Some engage in trade, selling cigarettes or inscribed shell-cases, which gives them a pretext to go inside private houses.” Chief of Police, Roisel, Somme

This paints a one-sided picture and there were many examples of the Chinese showing their caring side to the impoverished population.

“One company outside a devastated town… saw the French civilians coming back to their ruined homes, and heard that many women and children had no bed clothes to protect themselves from the bitter cold. Each man volunteered to give up one of his two blankets and 500 were handed over to the needy people.” George Cole, YMCA representative

Meeting the locals © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy 35

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The 1919 Peace Conference At Versailles, the new Republic of China had high expectations for their role over the previous three years on the global stage, not least the anticipated return of the area of Shandong around Tsingtao, given to Germany on a 99 year lease in 1898 by the Qing government before the Republic was formed. This was the naval base for the German Far East Squadron. In August 1914, when war broke out, this lease was revoked by the new Chinese Republic and the port was used by both French and British ships during the war.

Unfortunately, in the harsh realities of diplomatic negotiations, trade links and the importance of international relationships trump ‘fairness’ every time. Under a secret agreement already reached before the Conference, all German possessions in the Pacific north of the equator were given to Japan, a formal, but low key, ally of the French and British, in return for Japan’s support for Britain being given German islands in the Pacific. China got nothing, with the rather empty argument that theirs was a commercial contract for which they were paid in full.

“[Shandong] has sent tens of thousands of its citizens to Europe to work in the trenches and help win the war. Many sacrificed their lives. Now, as a reward for their service, the economic rights in their own province are to be turned over to Japan… Can we expect these citizens, who have experienced the terror of war on European battle fields and whose national spirit is enlightened, to rest satisfied with the conditions made by the treaty? The Chinese people are known as peace-loving and law-abiding people. But, under these circumstances, what human beings could endure such outrages and such humiliation?” Special delegation to the Peace Conference

In protest at the direction that the Conference was taking on China’s requests, the May Fourth Movement was founded, when 4,000 students gathered at Tiananmen, in Beijing, on that day in 1919. The following day students in cities across China went on strike and the movement quickly snowballed, with unions and workers aligning to the cause.

Their country’s treatment at Versailles was seen by the protesters as continuing the global ‘mistreatment’ of the new nation in recent years, particularly by Japan who benefitted at their expense.

It was upon this wave of disaffection and feelings of being deceived by the rest of the world that the May Fourth Movement was born, in turn laying the foundations of communism in China. 36 Page

The End of the Corps and the Return to China Despite their disappointment at Versailles, the men of the CLC remained in France finishing off their vital work and slowly winding down.

As the demobilisation of British soldiers gathered pace, the CLC units gradually lost their favoured officers, replaced by younger, inexperienced men, and the social fabric of the Corps began to fragment. A lack of command, less critical work to do and a growing impatience amongst the men to be released and returned home, led to increases in criminal and anti-social behaviour. In turn, the local population saw fewer reasons for the Chinese still to be in France, with much of the restoration of the landscape now completed.

YMCA members form a farewell party for departing men © WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy John de Lucy The men’s return journey to China was, as most had arrived, via Canada. Despite the end of hostilities in Europe, Canada persisted with a largely hostile attitude to the labourers and, as on their journey to France, the passage back across Canada was again done in sealed trains, with little opportunity to leave their carriages until their arrival at Vancouver.

Unlike the boatloads of returning Canadian soldiers, there was no fanfare, no welcoming crowds to greet the Chinese upon arrival at Halifax until a group of

Nova Scotia ladies began to regularly meet the boats, giving each labourer a souvenir card with a greeting in Chinese and two apples for the onward 37 journey. This they continued to do, in all welcoming some 20,000 labourers. Page

“Many thanks for welcoming us with a card and two apples for each of us when we arrived at your precious place… All of us are very grateful for such kindness.” Letter from two CLC interpreters, sent to Clara Dennis, published in the Halifax Herald, 11th Feb 1920.

Some 3,000 of the Chinese labourers employed by France, and perhaps some CLC men, settled in France after their work was done and did not return to China. The last survivor of these was Zhu Guisheng. He married a French woman, raised three children and lived in Lens until he died in 2002, aged 105. He served in the French Army in the Second World War.

The Chinese Labour Corps was officially disbanded on 14th September 1920, after the last men had been repatriated.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists 2,062 members of the CLC as having died. While most are buried or commemorated in France and Belgium, 38 are buried in Canada - 20 who died on their journey to France and 18 who died on the return journey - 19 are buried in England, again mainly those who died during the journey to France, but who travelled via Liverpool and Plymouth, and one man is buried in Egypt.

From Punch magazine, 10th Sept 1919, courtesy of Punch Ltd, www.punch.co.uk 38 Page

The bronze British War Medal “Chinese labourers who were enrolled in the Labour Corps will receive the British War Medal in bronze.” Winston S Churchill, Secretary of State for War, 10th December 1919

In 1919 a competition was run to design the British campaign medals for The Great War, a War Medal and a Victory Medal. The winning designs were by the Scottish sculptor, William McMillan, who used a figure of St George on a horse, holding a sword. Beneath them, rather than a slain dragon, the horse was trampling on a Prussian shield and also Crown Prince Wilhelm’s personal insignia of a skull and cross bones. Above their heads, the sun in the sky alludes to the new dawn brought on by the Allied victory.

Every soldier who had served would receive a silver War Medal, alongside the Victory Medal, with 6,500,000 issued. Men who served in colonial labour corps were issued with a bronze War Medal and this award was extended to the Chinese Labour Corps by the statement by Churchill above. In all, just 110,000 of the bronze medals were issued, of which 93,354 were to the men of the CLC. Each medal was named, around the rim; however those for the Chinese Labour Corps only showed their CLC number, rather than their name, despite a Latin script version of their name being on each man’s record. A similar approach was taken with the Egyptian Labour Corps and the Macedonian Mule Corps, with no rationale given in the records.

The medals were produced in 1921 and posted to the last known address of the recipient, despite many family accounts, including those in the film that accompanies this exhibition, insisting that their men brought the medals home with them.

Around one in ten of those dispatched were subsequently returned to Britain and scrapped. Most of these had simply failed to find their intended family, but some were also returned by recipients in protest, the medals being seen as

mere trinkets, an unworthy reward for the service offered. 39 Page

What is trench art? Trench art has been defined as:

“Any item made by soldiers, prisoners of war and civilians, from war material directly, or any other material, as long as it and they are associated temporally and/or spatially with armed conflict or its consequences”

Conflicts have been part of the fabric of human history since civilisation began. Equally, the innate human desire to covet objects in remembrance of people, places and events has also always been there. Souvenirs of conflicts will also have been part of our culture since the dawn of mankind.

Until the 20th century, the trench art legacy of conflict was predominantly from prisoners of war, carved wood and bone items made by prisoners, notably those from the Napoleonic wars, and exchanged for food and favours from their guards. The First World War, however, was like no conflict before or since, in many ways. While some aspects were uniquely terrible, others provided the seeds and fertile ground for those involved to create beauty, a defining artistic legacy of this Great War for Civilisation.

Belgian soldiers decorating 75mm shell cases 40

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In 1914 the British Arts and Crafts and French Art Nouveau were the height of fashion. Europe, so it seemed, was full of artisans and poets. More importantly, it possessed a highly skilled manufacturing industry, providing a generation of men and women with the ability to design and make things by hand.

When war was declared in August, these craftsmen from across Europe and from empires around the world, joined their nation’s armies to take part in this great adventure, the war to end all wars. By 1915, however, they found themselves locked in stalemate in France and it was not long before the craftsmen began to make souvenirs, objects of memory to keep, to send home to loved ones and to sell or barter.

The industrialised nature of this war meant unprecedented quantities of munitions were used, providing almost unlimited raw material for this art form. At the same time, this was ‘total war’, meaning every citizen in the participating nations was involved in some capacity. War souvenirs would have significance for everyone, and everyone would want one.

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CLC Trench Art Inevitably, the Chinese labourers in France, especially post-war, also turned their hands to making souvenirs from the material they were collecting when clearing the battlefields.

Marion ‘Joe’ Carstairs was among a dozen girls from Dublin who volunteered to go to France in early 1919 to relieve male ambulance drivers. Among their duties would be to ferry labourers from their camps to work sites. While staying at Bethune they encountered Chinese labourers.

“The ‘Chinks’, as the Chinese labourers in the camps were called, used hot tools to beat out patterns on spent shell cases which they found in the fields, and sold their curious jewels to the English girls.” “Joan Mackern claimed…that ‘almost a murder took place’ when a girl paid one Chinese worker more than another for a decorated bullet case.” “Molly had a similar experience: ‘I remember one said he would knife me because I had ordered an engraved shell case from him, and he had spoiled it by making it black and I refused to have it.’” From ‘The Queen of Whale Cay’ by Kate Summerscale

Joseph M Woods, an American priest, purchased four shells which had “etched drawings of the most exquisite designs showing dragons and chrysanthemums.”

“During leisure hours, they made souvenirs from scrap materials which had a ready sale.” Maj. Robert D Oliver, Northumberland Fusiliers, attached to Labour Corps

As battlefield tourism began, with coach tours of the iconic places those at home had been reading about for four years, the artisans of the Chinese Labour Corps saw new opportunities. These visitors all wanted a souvenir of their visit.

“Passing through such desolate spots as Houthoulst Forest [near Ypres] one finds the roadside lined in places with Chinamen plying a brisk and profitable trade in brass shell cases upon which a crude design has been scratched. ‘Would you like some nice souvenirs?’ asks the driver of the touring car, turning to his passengers, who chorus an eager ‘Yes!’. Making a signal with his arm, the driver pulls up. Chinamen come running from all directions. Within a few

moments the car is surrounded by an excited crowd of them all offering shell cases for sale.” Driffield Times, 6th Sept 1919 42

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Chinese Iconography On Trench Art Arts and crafts in China are connected with the people in a much deeper sense than that to which we are accustomed in the West. A key factor in this is the Chinese language. From the written form and the hundreds of spoken dialects a rich vocabulary of symbolism has emerged from the large numbers of homophones - words that sound the same but written differently and have different meanings. Homophones in English usually only have two meanings, for example ‘dear’ (beloved) and ‘deer’ (the animal). By comparison Chinese homophones are ubiquitous and complex; ‘Yi’ can mean ‘one’ (一), ‘also’ (亦), ‘100,000,000’ (亿), or a total of 55 other things. Over time words with different meanings become associated with each other due to a similarity of sound when spoken to create allegories. For example, the character 福 (fú) means “blessing” or “good fortune” and is pronounced the same as the word for bats 蝠 (fú). The Chinese word for a vase, 瓶 (píng) has the same sound as 平 (píng) which means peace. An image of a vase decorated with bats would therefore symbolise ‘blessings of peace’.

In traditional Chinese culture this wealth of motifs and characters have symbolic meanings that have created a tier of communication within its society that has no equivalence in the Western world. When this is utilised in Chinese visual arts it is not surprising that the appreciation of a painting often not referred to as viewing but as “reading a painting”.

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The Snow Lion

Tobacco jar engraved with a pair of Snow Lions and a Dharma Wheel Maker unknown Made from two German 77mm cartridge cases, dated Apr 1915 and May 1917, with added copper finial

The Snow Lion is a mythical, celestial animal representing the snowy mountains and glaciers of the Himalaya. It was adopted in early Buddhism as the protector of Buddha. The Snow Lion symbolises youthful exuberance, full of vitality and positive energy with a natural sense of wonder and delight. Their irrepressible spirit and energy is said to keep the gankyll or ‘ananda wheel’ in perpetual motion. In turn, the gankyll is the inner wheel of the Dharma Wheel shown here between the two Snow Lions. This eight-spoked wheel represents Buddha’s teaching of the Noble Eightfold Path, at the heart of Buddhist life – right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right samadhi (meditative absorption).

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Rats and Grapevines

Case engraved with scene of rats climbing grape vines amongst bunches of grapes, with a cat sat below them watching, with geometric and flower borders top and bottom. Made by Yen Ching, 38904, 173rd CLC. Made from British 6-pound cartridge case dated 1918

This intricately engraved case shows rats scaling a vine to feast on the grapes while, below, a cat sits watching them. The rat is a key animal in Chinese culture – the first sign of the zodiac and said to have begun all life on earth when it gnawed a hole in the shell of the egg- shaped universe to let in the life-giving air. Their reputation for procreation, with a single female capable of producing 5,000 young in her lifetime, means the rat symbolises fertility. This is also the case with grapes, with bunches of grapes containing many seeds for new vines. The combination, therefore, of rats and grapes in this image tells a story of hope for new beginnings. The thwarted cat below highlights a rat’s heightened survival instincts, versatility and ability to overcome dangers and outwit other creatures. The artist, Yen Ching, would have hoped for all of those traits 45 during his time in war-torn France. Page

Nezha

Case engraved with the god Nezha alongside a crane, a bat and a flying dragon with simple geometric borders top and bottom.

Maker unknown. Made from British 6- pound cartridge case dated 1917

Nezha, shown on this case, is a protection deity in Chinese folk religion. As a child Nezha committed suicide to save his family and village from the Dragon King. Nezha’s teacher brought him back to life using lotus roots to make a human body for his soul to inhabit. He also gave him two weapons, the Wind Fire Wheels at his feet and the Fire-tipped Spear. He also carries, above his head, the Universe Ring and around his body he wears the Red Armillary Sash. Since he could fly swiftly around on his Fire Wheels, many professional drivers in China see him as their patron god. He is also regarded as the patron god of children and filial piety. The image contains other potent symbols, including a bat flying just behind

Nezha, symbolising blessings, and a crane, believed by the Chinese to live to a very old age and therefore is used as a symbol of longevity. Finally, flying through the clouds at the top of the image is a dragon. 46 Page

The Amiens Shell

This impressive, intricately decorated case is covered with thousands of precisely placed dots. The images in the larger upper section contain symbolic references to three of The Eight Immortals, set within richly decorated framework of floral elements. From left to right, these upper panels show:

- The Chinese characters meaning ‘to salute’, in an oval frame decorated with a garland of plum blossom, symbolising hope - A vase, symbolising peace, containing plum blossom, for hope, but also a symbolic representation of the Immortal Lan Ts’ai-ho Case engraved with multiple iconographic images within a - A scroll fan, symbolising high status and geometric and stylised flower representing the Immortal Chung-li Ch’uan, again framework and a Greek key decorated with a garland of plum blossom border above. - A basket of fruit, as a representation of the Maker unknown. Made from Immortal Ho Hsien-ku, who herself features on German 21cm cartridge case dated Jul 1918 another shell case in this section of the exhibition

The series of four oblong cartouches in the lower half of the design depict the Four Treasures of the Study. From left to right, these show scrolls of blank paper; calligraphy brushes; ink sticks, that would be ground to a powder and mixed with water to make ink on the final symbol, the inkstone. The Four Treasures were used by gentlemen scholars to produce calligraphy, considered the highest and most noble artistic expression. Good calligraphy required the artist to have a pure spirit and by including the Four Treasures here, alongside the title panel ‘salute’, an accolade is clearly being made to the fallen that this shell salutes, affording them the status of a gentleman scholar,

being of pure heart and now residing alongside the Immortals. 47 Page

Liu Haichan

Case engraved with Liu Haichan dancing with a string of coins and a three-legged toad, with geometric and flower borders. Attributed to with Yen Ching, 38904, 173rd CLC. Made from British 6- pound cartridge case, undated

This case depicts Liu Haichan as a child dancing on rocky ground with a string of Chinese coins. Sitting in a stream beside her is Liu’s permanent companion, Jin Chan, a three-legged toad. Liu was a 10th century Daoist immortal thought to be an embodiment of Caishen, the God of Wealth in Chinese folk religion. Liu’s flowing robes are covered in plum blossom, symbolising hope. The three-legged toad is a moon symbol, counterpart to the sun symbol of a three-legged crow. According to folklore, the toad would transport Liu instantaneously from place to place, but would try and escape by diving down a well. Jin Chan is said to appear during the full moon as a portent of wealth- related good news and is sometimes known as a golden or money toad.

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Ho Hsien-ku

Case engraved with Ho Hsien-ku as a girl in flowing robes carrying a chrysanthemum and a horsehair flywhisk, with geometric and flower borders and the image of a British tank. Inscribed: “A Chinese man helping in France, 173rd Company”

Attributed to Yen Ching, 38904, 173rd CLC. Made from British 18-pound cartridge case dated 1918 This case depicts one of The Eight Immortals. Ho Hsien-ku is shown as a comely girl dressed in elaborate, flowing robes. Every day at dawn she would set out, flitting here and there like a winged creature, returning at dusk, bringing back mountain fruits and herbs that she had gathered for her mother. She is sometimes depicted carrying a ladle containing items linked to immortality, such as peaches, bamboo or pine. Sometimes, as on this engraving, this ladle would be represented by the more picturesque long- stalked lotus bloom. She may also hold a horsehair flywhisk, as here, or a basket of wild fruit. On the depiction here she has been given the wings of an insect, highlighting the manner of her daily jaunt around the countryside gathering food. Eventually, the story of her devotion to her mother reached the Empress Wu, who dispatched a messenger to summon her to attend at the palace, but

having set out to the palace, Hsien-ku disappeared. It is said that she ascended on high in broad daylight and became an immortal. She is now a symbol of filial piety, devotion to and respect for one’s parents. 49 Page

Oriole Birds

Case engraved with two pairs of oriel birds sitting in a prunus bush, geometric upper border. “Defend forever”

Made by, or for, Wang Benlai. Made from French 75mm cartridge case dated 1917

This case shows oriole birds sitting together in a plum tree full of blossom. The plum blossom is one of the most beloved flowers in China because they bloom vibrantly amidst the winter snow, their fragrance lightening the air in the coldest part of the year. The plum blossom came to symbolise perseverance and hope, the harbinger of spring. The writing below them states boldly “Defend forever”, echoing this spirit of perseverance. Nestled upon the branches are pairs of orioles, birds with a beautiful song that are associated with springtime and joy. In pairs, doubly so. The image is, therefore, of a wish for bounteous joy to come with the passing of winter and the arrival of Spring.

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Dragons There are some icons that hold a uniquely powerful position in Chinese culture. First depicted some 6,000 years by the Hongshan culture of modern- day northern China, the Dragon is, by some margin, first among these super- icons. The founder of the Han people, who make up the vast majority of China’s population, is said to be Yandi, whose mother was human and father was a dragon. It was the Yellow Dragon who bestowed the art of writing to the legendary first emperor of China, Emperor Fu Shi, some 5,000 years ago. Through the dragon’s primary position in Chinese history and cultural development it has come to symbolise China. Wise and compassionate they watch over the people, they symbolise nobility, solemnness, holiness, good fortune and an unrelenting and indomitable spirit. Dragons are often pictured grasping or in pursuit of a flaming pearl, representing spiritual energy, wisdom, prosperity, power or immortality.

Case engraved with undersea scene with four-clawed sea dragon and a variety of other sea creatures including prawns, crabs and fish

Maker unknown. Made from French 75mm cartridge case

dated 1916

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More Chinese labourer trench art

Case modelled as a Chinese Gu vase, lower band embossed and engraved with tigers, monkeys, birds and insects amongst trees and rocks, upper band with cranes amongst trees. Maker unknown. Made from unknown British 4-inch cartridge case, headstamps removed

Case engraved with four animal vignettes (frog, lion, bird and cranes) on stylised background of pond lilies and other flowers. Maker unknown. Made from cut-down German 77mm cartridge case dated 1901

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Made by Chang Shou P’eng, assumed to be CLC 98398. Made from German 77mm cartridge case dated Jun 1917

Case engraved with a songbird on a tree and geometric and flowery borders. “The bird sings at the end of winter. Made by Chang Shou P’eng, Fa Xian, Shandong, China. Carved in the 7th year of the New Republic [1918], on 21st October in the solar calendar. In Memory”

Case embossed and engraved with deer among trees and pomegranate (?) plant, geometric borders top and bottom. Engraved “29 C.L. C.” Made by member of 29th CLC. Made from German 77mm cartridge case dated Dec 1915

Case engraved with a crane on a rocky outcrop and a mythical qilin beneath a large pine tree. Maker unknown. Made from German 105mm cartridge case dated Oct 1916

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Pair of cases engraved with three vignettes (chrysanthemum bush, flying crane and man riding an ox with his hat blowing off) on background of prunus bushes with stylised flowery borders. Maker unknown. Made from Hotchkiss 6-pound cartridge cases, headstamps removed

Pair of cases each with attached waisted and flared top section, the case itself engraved on one side with a four-clawed dragon, on the other a detailed rural fishing village scene. Maker unknown. Made from British 12-pound cartridge cases dated 1917 and 1918, silver-plated brass.

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Pair of cases embossed and engraved with a dragon and a Fo Dog, with scalloped borders and cut-out rim. Text not yet translated.

Maker unknown. Made from French 75mm cartridge cases dated 1917

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Case engraved with a phoenix with stylised flower borders top and bottom. Text reads “The river bank of Yingde”. Yingde is an ancient city in the north of Guangdong.

Maker unknown. Made from cut-down British 6-pound cartridge case, undated.

Case embossed and engraved with interior family scene, two ladies, one kneeling holding a plate, one standing holding a baby, scene surrounded by grapevines, geometric to upper border. “Souvenir 1914-1919 Great War”

Maker unknown. Made from German 105mm cartridge case dated Nov 1917

Pair of cases embossed and engraved with two Chinese ladies standing under a parasol.

Maker unknown. Made from German 77mm 56

cartridge cases dated Jul 1918 Page

Case engraved with a scene of CLC men at work, pushing a trolley with railway sleepers on, carrying rations on a pole and pushing a trolley of fragmentation grenades (?), overseen by a British Officer and a CLC Gang Master, geometric top border and stylised floral border below.

Maker unknown. Made from German 155mm mortar cartridge case, dated Feb 1917

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Maker unknown. Made from British 18- pounder cartridge case, dated 1917.

Case engraved with multiple panels of Chinese text and a small panel depicting bamboo, with multiple Greek key borders above and below. Side panels not yet translated. Main panel reads:

“The German army was swept away while the coalition forces won. All of the nations participated in the war for many years. Standing today by the ruins where the war was, the desolate scene made me sad.”

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The first masters of trench art? There is one family of very similarly decorated shell cases – all with a single, highly detailed dragon, with a stylised acanthus leaf border at the top and a Greek key border at the base.

Often they were silver or chrome plated at the time of decoration, with the engraved areas left free of plating, to highlight the design.

It had been assumed by some that these were Chinese Labour Corps work, although their uniformity and relative abundance, coupled with many being on unidentified shell cases with no ‘head stamps’ on the base, led some experts, including the author, to question their heritage.

With the discovery of the pair of shell cases below, the question of heritage seems to have been solved.

This pair of cases, manufactured in France in 1895 by Hotchkiss, have the added feature of being engraved with a shield with, in Chinese writing, “Nanking 1913”. “Siege of Nanking 1913” has also, probably later, been engraved in English at the base of the design.

In 1913, President Yuan Shikai sought to consolidate his grip on power by crushing the main opposition, the Kuomintang, led by Huang Xing. His campaign began on 29th July 1913 and, in August, the key Kuomintang base in Nanchang, in Jiangxi province, was routed. Huang Xing was, then, also forced to abandon Nanking later in August. The local Kuomintang commander at Nanking, however, He

Haiming, refused to abandon the city and held out while the government army of Zhang Xun laid siege. The siege did not last long, however, and eventually Zhang’s troops successfully stormed the city, but then savagely looted and 60 Page ravaged the vanquished city. The opposition was defeated and what became known as the Second Chinese Revolution formally ended on 1st September 1913.

Since the Siege of Nanking of August 1913 marked the end of the revolution and the beginning of President Yuan’s period of total power over China, it is not surprising that people loyal to Yuan Shikai and Zhang Xun, now promoted to Field Marshall, would want souvenirs of the event, and it is likely that the items displayed here are examples of these souvenirs.

This theory is lent further credence by another unique feature of these artefacts – all the dragons on these Siege of Nanking-period shells are five- clawed dragons. Five-clawed dragons were, historically, only permitted to decorate the Emperor’s own items. With President Yuan adopting the mantle of Emperor, the use of a five-clawed dragon would certainly have seemed (to him) to befit the celebration of his victory over his opponents. The dragons decorating Great War shell cases are all, without exception, the ‘lesser’ four- clawed variety. While this may simply be the respecting of historical norms, it may also be that the men in France were deliberately distancing themselves from the, by then former, Presidential Yuan and all he stood for.

Elsewhere in the world, the decoration of shell cases as souvenirs of conflict at this time only extended to engraved wording, citing the provenance of the item for example ‘Shell fired at Paardeburg 1900’, with some decorative borders. The high quality, visually appealing designs on souvenirs from the Siege of Nanking in 1913 are thought to represent the earliest examples of this level of quality of trench art.

Simple trench art from the

Boer War 1899-1901

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William James Hawkings William James Hawkings was born on 28th January 1883 in Bedminster, Somerset, the son of James and Mary Hawkings. In 1908, he went to China with the British American Tobacco Company. He married Amelia Gladys Little in September 1912 and they had three daughters, Ethelwyn in 1913, Tommy in 1915 and Betty in 1916.

In February 1917, William set out for service in France, beginning at the Chinese Labour Corps recruitment station at Weihaiwei. With his fluent Mandarin, William was appointed Superintendent of No. 4 party and left Weihaiwei on 10th March 1917 with 1,201 Chinese labourers.

After training in England and gaining his army commission as a Lieutenant, William crossed the English Channel to France on 10th August 1917 and was assigned to 12th Company, CLC, working on the docks at Calais.

William was later sent back to China to escort a further contingent of labourers and then remained in France working with the CLC until August 1919, initially at Noyelles with a Depot Company, then with the 103rd Skilled Trades Company and finally with 30th Company at Bourbourg.

After being demobilised, William returned to Gladys and his children in Shanghai. He joined the shipping company Wheelock Marden, rising to Managing Director for Shanghai. During the Second World War, he and Gladys were interned by the Japanese in the Lunghwa Camp in Shanghai. For his work and support of the British community during those terrible times, William was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

William died in Darjeeling, India, on 19th June 1965, aged 82.

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End Notes

With grateful thanks to:

John de Lucy Gregory James Ying Lu Wenlan Peng and The Meridian Society The National Army Museum Steven Lau Jeremy Gordon-Smith The Great War Forum Nigel & Joe at Creative Sign & Design John Hollingworth and the Brunei Gallery team

Selected Bibliography

The Chinese Labour Corps (1916-1920) by Gregory James, Bayview Educational Press, 2013 Strangers in the Western Front by Xu Guoqi, Harvard University Press, 2011 Photographing the Fallen by Jeremy Gordon-Smith, Pen & Sword, 2017 Star Shell Reflections 1918-1919 edited by Barbara McClune, Pen & Sword, 2017 Harry Livingstone’s Forgotten Men by Dan Black, James Lorimer & Co, 2019 The Kaiser’s Battle by Martin Middlebrook, Penguin Classics, 2000 The World Crisis 1911-1918 by Winston S Churchill, Odhams Press, 1938 Wikipedia

Note on contemporary appellation

The exhibition and this booklet include contemporary quotes from memoirs, newspaper articles and interviews that include many terms now considered racially offensive or otherwise inappropriate. These are reproduced here in their original state and should be seen in the context of attitudes of the period. No offence is intended by the author nor The Brunei Gallery.

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