IWM A Chinese labour contingent

[Skipman]

IWM A Chinese labour contingent (8.42)

Object description

The Chinese Labour Corps on the Western Front, 1917.
Full description

The film, under-exposed, shows Chinese Labour Corps members working at a docks, carrying away sacks which come down on a sling from a dockside crane. They have difficulty with the sacks, but one large Chinese, after several failures, demonstrates to the camera that he can carry three sacks at once. They leave the docks marching in column. Other members of the Corps work in a stoneyard, shovelling granite chippings and road-fill out of light railway trucks. Another group works in the timber yard, carrying planks to a stack. Yet another collects water in collapsible buckets, slung on a pole between two men. At their camp, members of the Corps queue up to receive tinned rations, and a British soldier demonstrates to a bemused Chinese how to use a tin-opener. The members of the Corps form up on parade. The final scenes are of several Chinese carrying baskets suspended between poles, and of others sitting and eating.
Physical description

35mm

Mike