3 May 2009
Chinese Labourers Made Fatal Voyage
Vancouver British Columbia - The diary entry was
brief: Firemen - better known as stokers - were swarming from below decks armed with iron bars and knives and a gang of Chinese
"coolies," also suitably armed, was moving down to meet them.
And Leslie S. Greenhill, 37, the man charged with the duty of shepherding 2,400 Chinese labourers from the remote port of Wei Hai Wei,
China, to the battlefields of Europe wrote: "Informed. Went below and kept the two crowds apart." It wasn't that
simple. Watertight doors had been closed, armed back-up called, and "firehouses used" to suppress the onboard
riot as an Empress of the Canadian Pacific Trans-Pacific fleet sailed into Vancouver Harbour on 1 May 1917.
The day before the liner had cleared quarantine at William Head at 9 a.m., customs and immigration in Victoria at 1:45 p.m., and was
preparing for an 8 p.m. docking in Vancouver to end a journey commenced in Yokohama 21 Apr 1917.
She had moved, as had other Empresses carrying similar loads of labourers from China to Belgium and France, silently and secretly in
what still ranks as one of the greatest undercover military operations.
Armed patrols had covered the docks in Victoria to confine passengers and crew to the ship.
In Vancouver, heavily armed troops moved the Chinese from dock to railway station and ensured that once on board the train they stayed
there.
The Department of National Defence has only one file on the operation that transported more than 84,000 road builders, trench diggers,
carpenters, craftsmen, and labourers from China to Canada, then across Canada by train to Halifax and on to Liverpool and eventually
France and Belgium where they served but never fought.
Greenhill, who was born in what is now Plymouth, England, in 1880, was an old Hong Kong hand when assigned his mammoth babysitting
assignment.
He was the Secretary of the Hong Kong Land Investment Agency and a bachelor junior officer in army reserve when he got the call to
travel to Wei Hai Wei, take delivery of 2,400 coolies, and deliver them to England via Canada.
He maintained a diary throughout the journey, but never recorded the name of the Empress he and his motley army sailed on.
On arrival in Vancouver, the army of workers immediately entrained and departed.
On "loading" days, the special trains left every 45 minutes.
Under the contracts with the Chinese government, the coolies were guaranteed non-combatant status in Europe and
"free" passage home.
The history books are even quieter on the homeward journeys than they are on the wartime operation.
Greenhill's record, possibly the only detailed account of one voyage to survive the years, opened: "Wei Hai Wei, Monday,
16 Apr 1917: Coolies completed embarkation at 3 p.m. Settled down to sleep at 10 p.m. and were quiet and
orderly."
They sailed that day for Nagasaki, ran into a little trouble as hastily stored supplies got lost and found amid "lots of
confusion."
There was even more confusion between Nagasaki and Yokohama when it was reported "interpreter 13846" was missing and that
coolie 11621 had died.
At Yokohama "gun police were placed at likely places to keep coolies in order."
The Japanese insisted the corpse of coolie 11621 stay on board.
Reporting interpreter 13846 as a "deserter," the Empress sailed on Saturday, 21 Apr 1917, "around
midday."
Greenhill's diary noted coolie 11621 was buried at sea the same day "after 9 p.m. when the deck was clear."
The diary rarely missed a day of comment on the long voyage by boat, train, and boat again.
Greenhill notes the ups and downs calmly, without hyperbole.
His escort duty done, Greenhill joined the army and served with the 306 Siege Battery at Ypres.
He returned to Hong Kong after the war and was still a confirmed bachelor in his early 40s when a friend persuaded him to open
correspondence with Edith Kortright of Toronto.
In 1922, he crossed the Pacific to meet Edith for the first time - and marry her.
In 1935, he retired and brought his wife and two of his three Hong Kong-born daughters, Pamela and Patricia, to Victoria
on the Empress of Asia.
The third daughter, Peggy, was already in Canada.
Leslie died in 1955, Edith in 1985.
Surviving daughter Pam (Lewis) lives in Cordova Bay, the custodian of her father papers.
Among them, his fabulous journal and the family "embarkation coupon" for the Empress of Asia voyage, Hong
Kong-Victoria, 5 Apr 1935: "Passage for four, two full fares, two half fares, first class -
US$1,143."
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