| During World War I, some140,000Chinese labourers were recruited by Britain and France to make up for labour shortages, the former recruiting about100,000labourers and the latter about40,000. Those recruited were transported to the battlefields of Europe where they were entrusted with various tasks, such as digging trenches, moving bombs, and making cartridges on the front line, whilst boosting production in factories, farms, forests and so on, behind the front line. The contribution of these labourers in Europe constitutes China’s main contribution as a belligerent state. For the Allies, although the Chinese labourers did not engage in combat, and for France the Chinese only accounted for only a small proportion of their overseas labour force, they helped release an equal number of British and French workers who could then go to perform military duties. The contribution of the Chinese labourers towards the Allies should therefore be recognised by the annals of history.At present, some progress in this history research has been gained, but little attention has been paid by scholars in the past to detailed research on the recruitment of Chinese labourers during the First World War and the negotiations between China and Britain which paved way for it. This article attempts to analyse carefully Chinese and Western archival sources in an attempt to lay bare this specific episode of history. Initially, the British did not consult with the Beijing government when recruiting labourers. It was not until the arrest of recruitment agents by the Magistrate of Wendeng County, that the British began negotiating seriously with Peking. First of all, both parties agreed to place the negotations at local level. Then, a new approach was adopted, whereby Chinese authorities no longer interefered in the recruitment process. Finally, heeding to the popular demand, the Chinese authorities again changed its stance, in the sense that only those who had reached an agreement with the government could carry out recruitment. The establishment of the Tsingtau recruitment depot and the method of recruiting workers along the Shantung Railway from Tsingtau to Tsinanfu, gave the British free rein to recruit deep into the Chinese hinterland, far beyond China’s control, so that even without an agreement with the Chinese government, the recruitment would face little obstruction from local government. In addition, the political upheavals and regime changes of China also provided an opportunity for the expansion of recruitment.The Peking government remained in a very embarrassed and passive position in relation to the Britain’s recruitment efforts throughout the process. In view of its initial neutral position, the Peking authorities focused on nothing but an attempt to prevent its own implication in affairs related to the recruitment programme. Compared with the local authorities, the so-called "central government" proved in many cases to not be as powerful as the localities. The Peking government did not begin to face up to issues arising from the recruitment programme until the war situation gradually clarified itself. However, by then the British had already opened up avenues of recruitment well beyond China’s control. Unable to forbid its workers from leaving the country, the Chinese government could only attempt to negotiate better treatment for the Chinese labourers by the British, to set standards for their pension and to come to a properly settled agreement. After its formation, the Bureau for Overseas Workers contributed efforts in this regard, but the agreement rested on the drawing board, and two years into the negotiations, the question still remained unresolved. |
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