‘A' Company, 1st Battalion, Chinese Labour Corps (catalogue reference: FO 371/2905/396)

By September 3, 1916, the British Chinese Labour Corps scheme for World War I was active. Canada later secretly transported approximately 81,000 of these labourers from Victoria, BC, to Halifax for their journey to Europe. Throughout this period, the discriminatory Head Tax, in effect from 1885 to 1923, continued to apply, and these men were not permitted to leave their camps to mingle locally. During World War I, which Canada entered on August 4, 1914, when Britain's declaration of war on Germany automatically included the dominions of the British Empire, and which China itself formally joined on August 14, 1917, after a period of neutrality, approximately 140,000 Chinese labourers served behind the front lines for British and French forces. The British War Office had approved the Labour Corps scheme by early September 1916. Following Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare on February 1, 1917, and the tragic sinking of the French-contracted ship Athos with over 500 Chinese labourers, Britain sought shorter sea routes. Consequently, in March 1917, the Colonial Office requested Canadian assistance. Labourers were landed at Victoria, BC, from Wei-Hai-Wei, then transported on guarded Canadian Pacific Railway trains for their onward journey. Tragically, some died on the battlefield from stray bullets, others perished in Canada during transit, and many were buried in unmarked graves, including in British Columbia and Ontario.