CHINAMEN IN FRANCE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12244, 16 February 1918, Page 4

CHINAMEN IN FRANCE.

WORK BEHIND THE LINES,

AN INTERESTING INNOVATION,

Behind the fighting line you find men of innumerable races and nationalities, employed not as combatants, but on purely labour duties. By far the most numerous are the Chinese (writes Charles IVatney in “ Land and Water.” A\ e were not the originator of the idea of employing Chinese labour in r ranee. The Trench were the pioneers. Encouraged by their experience in utilising the services of men from their own colonies, they proceeded to enrol them with the acquiescence of the Chinese ..Government in Northern China, and it is also from the north that we .ourselves draft them to France. Ihe Chinaman does not mind long journeys and long periods of voluntary expatriation. He signs on for a three yeans contract;, Whereas the South African native for domestic reasons limits his period of service to one year, this is a strong point in the former's favour. Another point in his favour is that he is a hardy traveller. It must be an interesting pilgrimage when some thousands of these men set out for Europe, and it must be a' !remarkable experience. In the first place they have been carefully selected, and apart from a few elderly individuals they are all of a fine physique. But at the same time in a long journey maladies are. necessarily contracted or devedoped In that case, the pilgrimage /drops the sick people for hospital attendance on the way. and when they have recovered they are attached to the next party passing through. Thus some parties arrive less in strength than when they started, while others ai nve considerably larger. These maladies are nearly always trivial; an attack of mumps held a party up at one ■ pot toi quite a long time. Up to the Present no mishap whatever has befaThn any and the mortality is trivial recently tourers who iccently died in a British town was accoicled a military funeral anev°nTil Pay a ’ tribute t0 buoymen Ti, thfl /“Perturbability of these mm. They have no break in their dl/tl 1 ' 118 -;,''^/ 11811 1 SFMV them—as I did the other day to the extent of some two or three thousand—thev were all cheerful and well provided wS m“sic° m V n t d r° ther inst mmeii ts of iv lr , t L 7 ( r n c - ritics "™<ter thick tn nnt c , o ,t hllle is sufficiently n protect them against cold * if ... ong brown cloak over the usual * rs ter,.'??*

in l Fr n n°c“ t Tn e th P of landed u nance in the mid-afternoon; late at f greurhi® a tr , ain dl °PPed them ~a S'e-U Chinese depot rules and miles behind the ashling "rent and nu’’ti,?,, 111 ? "n hell a, h™ -ft, * showed them a. type of camp with which manv, havT$K ab °A ed m South Af ™a, nre famil ar. On one side of a wide road 1 evidently remodelled extensively by the mi itary since the spot lies well off the beaten tiack, has been built a la/vro ™f dc f mp . one third of tent/j and two-thirds of permanent structures of the noimal military type which the Wh Cail r nter ,S runnill S >‘P all over Northern France,

'nJ h nnf Ca r mp ? 08sess ? s features which aio not found i n the other Chinese camps m France. It is the great clearing depot for all arrivals and its ladministration is testimony of the thoroughness, care and patience with which these immigrants are looked after. Jliey spend but a short time in the depot, a. few days at th e most, and sometimes, if the incoming numbers are very large, as they occasionally are, only .fust sufficient time for record and refitting purposes. In the morning after their arrival each man 18 . individually submitted to a verv minute medical examination, more especially for trachoma, and to a lesser degree for pulmonary troubles. A a tin alb the one great object jn fn of fins nature, and in dealing with a race prone to certain diseases, is to detect at the earliest possible moment the outbreak of even n single case. The medical attendance and supemsion of the men, therefore is notably thorough and perfect. Prior, however, to the medical examination each man lias to he identified. The men have names, which are known to the authorities, but in view of their complexity and difficulty of pronunciation, each is known, and for all practical purposes identified, hv a njinnber. LOVE OF NEW BOOTS.

M hen the men leave the doctor—and the vast majority arrive in excellent health—they are taken in hand by the Quartermaster of the Stores. It is Ins job to fit them out, with hoots, vesta and blankets, and his department kepps such a minute record of eiyih individual transaction that if ot a later date amy labourer .suggests he has not been properly and adequately fitted out, his statement can he at once investigated. Occasionally one has hoard reports that some'of the men suffer from lack of hoots. As a. mafctor of fact, they may suffer in this way, hut, it is their own fault- Thd average Chinaman is hv no means an innocent, and unsophisticated child of nature. He has been known to sell his boots for the sake of the few dollars he may get, on them, and he will then return and hlandllv ask for another pair. He has, too, a weakness for new boots. Sometimes some of the boots have been stout second-hand ones, thoroughly re-