Many thousand Chinese men served in the Chinese Labour Corps in France during the First World War and on the British Merchant ships that supplied Britain in both World Wars. They were renowned to be knowledgeable in their duties, hardworking but were paid less than their British counterparts. Many of them died alongside their British colleagues on land and at sea. At the end of the Second World War over 2000 Chinese seamen who had helped in the war effort lived in Merseyside.
The then Labour Government were concerned that they would stay permanently, also the Seamen’s Union were worried that they would undercut their wages and take their jobs. In 1946 the Liverpool Constabulary carried out the orders from the British Government to deport Chinese sailors in Merseyside. They rounded up the Chinese seamen from lodging houses and from the streets under false pretences and forcibly deported them illegally to China. The men were told that they would not be able to return to the UK.
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