The Chinese Labour Corps – forgotten heroes of the First World War (Part 1)

Exactly a hundred years ago in 1917 the First World War was raging across Europe. A century later in 2017 town halls and war veterans groups across Northern France, where many of the fiercest battles took place, have been staging events and commemorations to remember the Allied war dead. Mark Griffiths visited the Pas de Calais area which saw intense fighting at Cambrai, the Somme, Vimy Ridge and French Flanders to investigate one of the least-known aspects of the war – the vital role played by 140,000 Chinese labourers who provided crucial support to the Allied forces in their march towards victory.

This is the first of his five reports from France. 

Mark Griffiths at the war memorial in Oye-Plage, France, December 2017 [Photo: China Plus/Mark Griffiths]

Part 1 – The Formation of the Chinese Labour Corps

The year 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of China declaring war on Germany and joining the struggle for Europe’s freedom during the First World War. That China even participated in this Europe-wide struggle is largely unknown both in the West and China, and one of the noblest and most interesting aspects of China’s contribution to defeating Germany’s dream of a Europe united under the heel of its boot is all but forgotten. This is the story of the Chinese Labour Corps, a 140,000-strong body of men, without whom victory over the German Kaiser may have been impossible. 

The cap badge of the Chinese Labour Corps [Photo: Flanders Fields Museum]

The story really began in June 1916, on the eve of the Battle of the Somme. A million soldiers of the British Army prepared to take on the enemy in trench warfare. Two hundred kilometres of deep trenches ran like a scar across the frontline, providing both accommodation and fighting stations for the troops. By the end of the war the total length of the trenches built by both sides would reach almost 2,450 kilometres, each trench having an average depth of three metres and width of one to two metres. 

A German trench occupied by British Soldiers during the Battle of the Somme, July 1916 [Photo: IWM, London]

In addition to the colossal work involved in building these fortifications, the troops had to be constantly supplied with ammunition, food, and other essentials. From the outbreak of the war in 1914 to 1916 British labour units and combat troops had been tasked with building the trenches and maintaining the supply lines. They were joined by many other Commonwealth troops and also built camps and airfields, retrieved weapons and unspent ammunition from the battlefield, and repaired roads and railways. 

New Zealand soldiers digging a trench at the Somme [Photo: New Zealand Government]

All this changed after the Battle of the Somme, which left over a million men dead on both sides, with Britain’s official dead, wounded or missing numbering 419,654. This vast number of casualties meant that every able-bodied serviceman was now needed on the frontline and Britain would have to look elsewhere for men to keep things running smoothly behind the lines.

Living conditions in a trench during the Battle of the Somme [Photo: Public domain]

Until August 1917 China maintained a neutral stance on the issue of the war in Europe, but in October 1916 the Chinese government led by President Li Yuanhong received a message from Britain’s War Office accepting its offer to provide non-combatant Chinese labourers to work with the British army. The new unit would be called the Chinese Labour Corps. 

Chinese president Li Yuanhong (1916-1917) [Photo: Public domain]

The Chinese government was keen to help and called for volunteers. Word spread by both official channels and through British missionaries based in China. The British offered good working conditions and generous pay to every man who volunteered – 20 yuan paid on enrolment and 10 yuan a week paid to his family in China while he was away in Europe. This seemed like a very good deal to thousands of impoverished men from China’s northern provinces of Shandong and Zhili and they arrived at the embarkation ports eager to sign up for three years’ service. At the beginning of 1917 the first contingent of Chinese labourers set off for Europe by ship via Canada and by December that year 54,000 Chinese labourers were working hand in hand with the Allied forces in France and Belgium. This figure would reach almost 140,000 by the end of the war. 

Members of the Chinese Labour Corps loading sacks of oats onto a lorry at Boulogne [Photo: IWM, London]

Members of the Chinese Labour Corps employed on construction work at the Wagon Depot at Oissel, 28 June 1918 [Photos: IWM, London]

The labourers came from all backgrounds. Many were farmers, others tinkers, tanners, laundrymen, even students and former aristocrats in search of adventure. Some were destined to die in France and would never see their homeland again. Others would return home with money in their pockets, while some would stay behind and lay the foundations of France’s Chinatown culture. A few would go on to directly influence China’s post-revolutionary leaders Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping who decades later would lead the country into the current era of peace and prosperity.  

In the next part the Chinese labourers make their way to a war-torn far-off land.