[
    {
        "id": 214999,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2000",
        "page_number": 95,
        "title": "RAS-2000",
        "content_text": "51\n\nyoung for demobilisation, he volunteered to join the HQ of the CLC instead of serving with the Army of Occupation of the Rhine, and served with them until being demobilised. In February 1920 he volunteered for repatriation duty and from Le Havre assisted to escort 1000 labourers on the S.S. Melita to St John's, Newfoundland, a voyage lasting five days. Seven days journey by Canadian Pacific Railways took them to Vancouver City and then by ferry to the quarantine station at William Head on Vancouver Island, where they were joined by another 5000 coolies who were also awaiting repatriation. After quarantine, with 12 British officers and other ranks, 4730 coolies sailed on the M. S. Dollar to Qingdao, a crossing of twenty-one days, where the coolies were demobilised. Mellor then sailed via Shanghai, Hong Kong [staying two months], the Suez Canal to London, where he was demobilised in late 1921.\n\nAgain, a further confusion in these figures of those who died arises, as, according to a list of names provided by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, of those labourers who have graves, world-wide, the number buried is 1952. Their list also includes, separately, names and graves of non-nationals [i.e. Brits, etc.] who were either serving with or were attached to the CLC from other regiments and these totalled 58. A total of 191 Chinese from the Corps served later with the Slavo-British Legion in Northern Russia in 1920. Between March and December 1919, 50,861 labourers were repatriated with shipments continuing for several more years. About 60 men remained behind in France to carve inscriptions on the tombstones of their dead fellow workers, and this may explain why some of the characters on the stones are unusual, if not incorrect. We understand that headstones are today replaced at fairly frequent intervals providing an enduring picture of well-cared for military cemeteries. The stones are produced nowadays in France by a team working for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission [CWGC] using automatic laser guided tools. This means that the Chinese characters are taken from identical templates which may explain why the character that we saw for the surname Liu has two different forms, each of which is identically turned out on headstones but without any apparent reason for the use of the popular version on some and the obscure version on many more. According to the CWGC a typical headstone would bear one of five phrases engraved both in Chinese and English, the name of the corps, number and date of death in English and the name and province of the casualty in Chinese. We only",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215010,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2000",
        "page_number": 106,
        "title": "RAS-2000",
        "content_text": "62\n\nfrom Qing county in Zhili, having murdered a fellow-countryman was executed on 12th September 1918. The former's gravestone bears the epitaph 'A noble duty bravely done' whilst the latter's bears the epitaph 'Though dead he still liveth.'\n\nZhang Ruzhi (Chang Ju Chih in Wade-Giles romanisation), [16174], of the 150th Company CLC, from X-hai13 in Zhili appeared to lead a charmed life after murdering a French prostitute and her three children near Amiens in November 1918. He was arrested in April 1919 but in May escaped and boarded a ship in Marseilles in August for China. On arrival at Shanghai he was not allowed to land for not having the correct papers and was returned to Marseilles. After landing he disappeared in France, apparently dealt in cocaine, before finally being arrested in February 1920 near Calais and was interrogated. He eventually admitted his guilt before his execution. His last requests were not to have his eyes bandaged and to sing a hymn, both of which were granted. His gravestone carries the inscription 'A Good Reputation Endures Forever.' The wording of the epitaphs on the gravestones of those executed for such heinous crimes would seem to be ironic in the extreme. On his gravestone his date of death is shown as 14 February 1920, whilst on the CWGC printout of CLC graves, his date of death is given as 10 February 1920. [This has been queried with the CWGC]\n\nAgain, on a personal visit with my wife, we visited the Old and New Military Cemeteries at Poperinge, Belgium, in which there are lone graves to members of the CLC. That in the New Military Cemetery is of Yu Eu-peng, [30159], of the 55th Company, CLC, who died on 31st July 1917. In the Old Military Cemetery is the grave of Wang Chin-chih (Wang Jungzhi [sic] in Wade-Giles) [44735], of the 10th Company, CLC. On his gravestone is carved ‘A Good Reputation endures Forever.' He killed a colleague in their camp at De Klijte, escaped but was caught at Le Havre, tried on 19 April 1919 in Poperinge and was executed on 8 May 1919. His execution is reputed to have taken place in the courtyard of the Town Hall at Poperinge, opposite the cells in its basement which were used to detain soldiers for minor offences and also prior to being shot, but the Town Hall had already reverted to its former civilian use at this time. Word has it that his execution was the last to be held in Poperinge and the execution post, now on public view in the Courtyard, was used only once, for his execution. [see photograph] The cemetery was in use\n\n4",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215012,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2000",
        "page_number": 108,
        "title": "RAS-2000",
        "content_text": "64\n\nCharles Atkinson of the 171th Company, Labour Corps was attached to the CLC and died on 4th July 1919. Ptc. W. Brophy of the King's (Liverpool) Regiment transferred to the 43rd Company CLC and died on 10th December 1918. Pte. A. J. Davis of the Infantry Labour Company, Devonshire Regiment, transferred to the 116th Company CLC and died on 19th July 1918. Sgt. F. C. Legg of the London Regiment (the London Rifles) transferred to the 9th Company CLC and died on 9th November 1918.\n\nThe gravestones of the Chinese have names carved in English and not in Chinese and, surprisingly, all bear the same epitaph 'Faithful unto Death.' Amongst the CLC graves are those members who were shot at dawn. You Longxi [Yu Lung-hsi in Wade-Giles romanisation] [4976] was court-martialled and convicted of murdering two people and sentenced to death on 28th December 1918, but committed suicide on 29th January 1919 before his sentence could be carried out. On the same date [28th December 1918] Wang Fayou [Wang Fa-yu in Wade-Giles romanisation] [5884] was also sentenced for the same offence as Yu, and was shot on 15th February 1919. Hei Chi-ming [Chei Chi Ming on the headstone] [97170] and Kung Ching-hsing [44340] died on 21st February 1920, after both were convicted for wounding two French prostitutes and the murder of a British Army sergeant at a brothel near Le Havre.\n\nBefore becoming interested in the Chinese Labour Corps and whilst researching, especially, the Victoria Cross holders from my old school, I visited Shorncliffe Military Cemetery, near Folkestone in Kent, where I found six graves of labourers of the CLC, all having died in the Shorncliffe Military Hospital in 1917 and 1918. Folkestone area was used as a staging post with the camps located near Sugar Loaf Hill and Caesar's Camp. These gravestones are much larger, of a different material [slate?] and format to the usual CWGC gravestones. The tops are shaped similar to Dutch house roofs. The wording, however, is similar. Those buried here are Niu Yun-huei [24640], died 2nd July 1917; Chen Te-shan [11916], died 30th August 1917; Liu Ching-yi [37614], died 1st January 1918; Wang Chin-tien [109761], died 4th April 1918; Chiao Pi-cheng [105994] died 13th April 1918 and Yang Chi-chun [72367], died 30th April 1918.\n\nChinese labourers of the CLC are buried elsewhere in England, in",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215023,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2000",
        "page_number": 119,
        "title": "RAS-2000",
        "content_text": "75\n\nhad been handed over the Chinese departed and nothing further had been heard from them. A member of the Mayor's office in Noyelles asked whether we knew where Tungkang was as they had searched the map of China to locate it without success. They seemed quite surprised when they were informed that it is a small fishing town south of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan. The French and Chinese inscriptions on the socles of the two Lions gave the date as 1984 and not 1994.\n\nOur next move was to telephone the Tungkang Town Council Offices only to find that everyone, though very helpful, had no idea what we were talking about. The Mayor of Tungkang of the time, 1984, had long gone and was, they thought, dead. The more we thought about it the more puzzling it became with the only ideas we could come up with being the short semi-official drive in the 1980s by the Taipei government to widen their contacts with the western world and to remind foreigners of Taiwan's existence.\n\nSome months later, the Mayor's Office in Noyelles came up with two documents. One was an undated invoice to the then Maire de Noyelles, M. Claude de Valicourt, covering the shipment of two ‘marble of ramp as they were called, 'Gift of No Commercial Value' being shipped from the port city of Kaohsiung to Noyelles via Le Havre. It was signed Tungkang Town, Town Office. The Bill of Lading, however, was dated 1st June 1985.\n\nThe other was a typed certificate in Chinese signed by both the Tungkang Mayor and the 'Nuo-ye-le' Mayor, with the French translation. Neither signature is legible, though the date clearly is 20th January 1984 [the 73rd year of the Republic and not 1994]. It is headed Dijie Jiemei Zhen Mengshu which literally means 'Wedded Sister Towns Alliance' and is addressed to the Noyelles's Mayor [Nuo-ye-le Shizhang]. The flowery language used, typical of such pronouncements, declared everlasting friendship between the people of Noyelles and people of the Republic of China [Taiwan] and good wishes for future co-operation for mutual understanding. The significant line, however, thanks the people of Noyelles for their respect for the graves of the Chinese labourers in the Chinese cemetery.\n\nThe French version of the Chinese produced 'Pledge,' freely translated, also mentions the Chinese cemetery. The date in 1984 is",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 215038,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2000",
        "page_number": 134,
        "title": "RAS-2000",
        "content_text": "86\n\n3\n\nİ\n\n90\n\nLonguenesse (St Omer) Souvenir, Pas de Calais\n\nMaroeuil British, Pas de Calais\n\nMaroilles Communal, Nord\n\nMazargues War, Marseilles, Bouches-du-Rhone\n\n8 Metz-en-Couture Communal\n\nBritish Extension, Pas de Calais\n\nMondicourt Communal, Pas de Calais\n\nNoyelles-sur-Mer Chinese Cemetery, Somme 838\n\nNoyelles-sur-Mer Chinese Memorial, Somme 41\n\nOrival Wood, Flesquieres,Nord\n\n1\n\nOuttersteene Communal Extension, Bailleul, Nord 1\n\nPernes British, Pas de Calais\n\nPerreuse Chateau Franco British National,\n\nSeine-et-Marne\n\n2\n\nPommereuil British, Nord\n\nQueant Communal British\n\nExtension, Pas de Calais\n\nQuirrieu British, Somme\n\nRamillies British, Nord\n\nRosieres Communal Extension, Somme\n\n1\n\nRuminghem Chinese, Pas de Calais\n\n75\n\nSolesmes British, Nord\n\n1\n\nSt Andre Communal, Nord\n\n3\n\nSt Etienne-au-Mont Communal, Pas de Calais 147\n\nSt Pierre, Amiens, Somme\n\nSt Sever Extension, Rouen, Seine-Maritime\n\nSt Marie, Le Havre, Seine-Maritime\n\nTerlincthun British, Wimelle, Pas de Calais\n\nTincourt New British, Somme\n\nTourcoing (Pont-Neuville) Communal, Nord\n\nVadencourt British, Maissemy, Aisne\n\nVillers-Carbonnel Communal, Somme\n\nHONG KONG\n\nHong Kong Cemetery\n\nSai Wan (China) Memorial\n\nITALY\n\nTaranto Town Cemetery Extension\n\n1\n\n44\n\n4\n\n1\n\n5\n\n3\n\n57\n\n1\n\n3\n\n4\n\n3",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 216178,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2002",
        "page_number": 477,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "411\n\nYET MORE ON THE CHINESE LABOUR CORPS IN FRANCE, 1917-1921\n\nDAVID MAHONEY\n\nKeith Stevens writes that Brian Fawcett in his article on \"THE CHINESE LABOUR CORPS IN FRANCE\" quoted a figure of 30,000 Chinese who returned to and remained in France, from China, after World War I. He added that the figure appears excessive. In fact, the total of all the Chinese labourers recruited by the French for the French Chinese Labour Corps during World War I did not exceed 50,000.\n\nThe French began their recruitment of Chinese in 1916, some six months before the British did. The scheme was initiated following preliminary discussions on the practicalities of recruiting Chinese labourers to be shipped to France to work in munitions factories to release Frenchmen to serve in the trenches, with the initial idea being to recruit Chinese from the area around the French treaty port of Guangzhouwan in Guangdong in southern China. This, however, was rejected and Jiangsu province - a northern province where the Chinese were hardier and used to northern climes - was selected, particularly in view of the wide French missionary influence in that province. A French Army major was despatched from French Indo-China (now Vietnam) to Shanghai where he was based in the French Concession ostensibly as a French civil servant, to avoid embarrassing the Chinese, to report on the practicality of the proposal. His report was favourable and accepted, and recruitment of Chinese volunteer labourers was started in Jiangsu province, in the vicinity of Shanghai in July 1916.\n\nThe labourers were transported by sea from Shanghai to Marseilles, where the main French CLC was situated, and Le Havre, and trained and worked in munitions factories across France such as Bergerac in the Dordogne, or in private concerns such as the Schneider factory at Le Creusot. Such employment was not possible in Britain due to the objections raised by British trade unions. French Chinese labourers were often billeted in French homes, and an unknown but comparatively large number married French women, some of whom accompanied their husbands back to China. The few labourers who died in France were buried at French civil cemeteries. Their records were maintained at the Headquarters in Lyons.\n\n'JHKBRAS: Vol. 40, 2000, pp. 33-111.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278",
        "rank": 0
    }
]