Quarantined: Life and Death at William Head Station 1872-195
Nov 30, 2013 0:26:45 GMT -5
Post by helen on Nov 30, 2013 0:26:45 GMT -5
New B.C. book unearths Chinese labourers’ secret role in First World War by Ng Weng Hoong on Nov 27, 2013 at 10:56 am
the most secretive mass western outsourcing of jobs to China took place almost a century ago when at least 140,000 Chinese labourers were shipped to Europe to help the British and French armies defeat the Germans in the infamous European trench battles of the First World War.
In a hugely successful mission in 1917 that is just coming into public awareness, more than 84,000 members of the Chinese Labour Corps (CLC) were transported 20,000 kilometres from Shandong province to Canada’s Vancouver Island and then to Halifax to eventually play key support roles in the killing fields of France and Belgium.
At least another 54,000 were shipped through a more dangerous route: via the Suez Canal and across the Mediterranean Sea to the French port Marseilles, near where German vessels and submarines were known to patrol.
The little-known CLC, comprising anywhere between 140,000 and 200,000 recruits from northern China, has recently become the subject of scholarly research and media interest for its role in shaping China’s attitude toward the West during its decades-long struggle against colonial rule starting in the late 19th century.
As the war dragged on, seemingly with no end in sight, the Allied forces’ bold move in August 1917 to inject fresh young bodies from half a world away to support the frontline troops proved strategic, contributing to their victory and the conflict’s conclusion by November 1918.
In a just-published book titled Quarantined: Life and Death at William Head Station 1872-1959 (Heritage House), Vancouver-based retired teacher Peter Johnson writes that the Empress of Russia sailed from China’s Shandong province to unload the first batch of 2,057 specially recruited labourers at the William Head Quarantine Station near Victoria on August 18, 1917
www.straight.com/news/538641/new-bc-book-unearths-chinese-labourers-secret-role-first-world-war
the most secretive mass western outsourcing of jobs to China took place almost a century ago when at least 140,000 Chinese labourers were shipped to Europe to help the British and French armies defeat the Germans in the infamous European trench battles of the First World War.
In a hugely successful mission in 1917 that is just coming into public awareness, more than 84,000 members of the Chinese Labour Corps (CLC) were transported 20,000 kilometres from Shandong province to Canada’s Vancouver Island and then to Halifax to eventually play key support roles in the killing fields of France and Belgium.
At least another 54,000 were shipped through a more dangerous route: via the Suez Canal and across the Mediterranean Sea to the French port Marseilles, near where German vessels and submarines were known to patrol.
The little-known CLC, comprising anywhere between 140,000 and 200,000 recruits from northern China, has recently become the subject of scholarly research and media interest for its role in shaping China’s attitude toward the West during its decades-long struggle against colonial rule starting in the late 19th century.
As the war dragged on, seemingly with no end in sight, the Allied forces’ bold move in August 1917 to inject fresh young bodies from half a world away to support the frontline troops proved strategic, contributing to their victory and the conflict’s conclusion by November 1918.
In a just-published book titled Quarantined: Life and Death at William Head Station 1872-1959 (Heritage House), Vancouver-based retired teacher Peter Johnson writes that the Empress of Russia sailed from China’s Shandong province to unload the first batch of 2,057 specially recruited labourers at the William Head Quarantine Station near Victoria on August 18, 1917
www.straight.com/news/538641/new-bc-book-unearths-chinese-labourers-secret-role-first-world-war
