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The Chinese Labour Corps (CLC; (フランス語:Corps de Travailleurs Chinois)) was a force of workers recruited by the British government in World War I to free troops for front line duty by performing support work and manual labour. The French government also recruited a significant number of Chinese labourers, and although those labourers working for the French were recruited separately and not part of the CLC, they are often considered to be so. In all, some 140,000 men served for both British and French forces before the war ended and most of the men were repatriated to China between 1918 and 1920.〔Xu, Guoqi ''Strangers on the Western Front'' Harvard University Press, 2011〕 ==Origins== In 1916, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig requested that 21,000 labourers be recruited to fill the manpower shortage caused by casualties during World War I. Recruiting labourers from other countries was not something unusual at that time. Other than the Chinese, there were Labour Corps serving in France from Egypt, Fiji, India, Malta, Mauritius, Seychelles, the British West Indies as well as a Native Labour Corps from South Africa.〔 It was estimated that at the end of the war over 300,000 workers from the Colonies, 100,000 Egyptians, 21,000 Indians and 20,000 native South Africans working throughout France and the Middle East by 1918.〔 As China was initially not a belligerent nation, her nationals were not allowed by their government to participate in the fighting. As a result, the early stage of the recruiting business in China was somewhat sketchy, with semi-official support from local authorities. However, after China declared war against Germany and Austria–Hungary, on 14 August 1917, the Labour Department of the Chinese government began organizing the recruitment officially. The scheme to recruit Chinese to serve as non-military personnel was pioneered by the French government. A contract to supply 50,000 labourers was agreed upon on 14 May 1916 and the first contingent left Tianjin for Dagu and Marseille in July 1916. The British government also signed an agreement with the Chinese authorities to supply labourers. The recruiting was launched by the War Committee in London in 1916 to form a Labour Corps of labourers from China to serve in France and to be known as the Chinese Labour Corps.〔 A former railway engineer, Thomas J. Bourne, who had worked in China for 28 years, arrived at Weihaiwei (then a British colony) on 31 October 1916 with instructions to establish and run a recruiting base.〔Xu (2011), p.27〕 The Chinese Labour Corps comprised Chinese men who came mostly from Shandong Province, and to a lesser extent from Liaoning, Jilin, Jiangsu, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui and Gansu Provinces.〔 The first transport ship carrying 1,088 labourers sailed from the main depot at Weihaiwei on 18 January 1917. The journey to France took three months.〔(Commonwealth War Graves Commission: The Chinese Labour Corps at the Western Front )〕 Most travelled to Europe (and later returned to China) via the Pacific and by Canada.〔Xu (2011), p.5〕 The tens of thousands of volunteers were driven by the poverty of the region and China's political uncertainties, and also lured by the generosity of the wages offered by the British. Each volunteer received an embarkment fee of 20 yuan, followed by 10 yuan a month to be paid over to his family in China.〔J.Spence, 'The Search for Modern China' pg275〕 Two of the unit's commanders Colonel Bryan Charles Fairfax and Colonel R.L. Purdon had served with the 1st Chinese Regiment in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chinese Labour Corps」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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