The "Sin Shim Pao," an anti-Chungking daily published here Tt the Chinese language, yester day printed a news item illustrated by pictures and reaffirming the story, already sufficiently denied, that the British in Hongkong are re-cruising Chinese for labour purposes at the front in France. The pictures published with the article were taken in Tsingtao during the last great war, and show a number of Chinese coolies on parade, and some of them at leisure the pictures is to make the readers of in their camps.
"The obvious intention of pu-
paper believe that they are proof of the legation that a Chinese Labour Corps is being recruited for service at the front in this war. The report is a tissue of falsehood. An extract follows:—
The British are enslaving the Chinese in a cruel way by asking them to do coolie work at the front in the present European conflict as they did in the first World War. The vanguards of the "coolie corps" numbering several thousand persons have already been recruited from Hongkong and sent to the front in France on Tuesday. It is predicted that more Chinese coolies will be sent to the European front in future. The British plan is to recruit 200,000 Chinese coolies.
It is recalled that during the World War the British recruited Chinese coolies in Tsingtao. In a most "cunning way" they gathered together many thousands of coolies and took them to unknown destinations. As soon as the British got hold of them, the Chinese coolies became nudists and were handcuffed and known by numbers like slaves, it is alleged.
They were sent to the front in France to do repair work and, caught by cross fire, most of them were killed by German gunfire or disabled in one way or the other. The British then chose Tsingtao as the recruiting base because Japan had entered the war and taken over that port, making Germany her enemy. In the present war, however, the British cannot do the same with convenience, owing to the fact that the Japanese have occupied many districts in various parts of China.
The "North-China Daily News" employs one of the members of the Chinese Labour Corps who saw service in the last war. This rubbish was shown to him and he was asked to comment. He was able to state from his own experience that there is not a vestige of truth in any of it
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.