A simple ceremony held in Liverpool’s Chinatown on July 19 marked a further small but significant step in the struggle for justice on the part of the now elderly descendants of the Chinese merchant seamen, thousands of whom were secretly and forcibly deported from the north-west English city in 1946, in one of the most blatant and cruel acts of racism by Britain’s post-war Labour government.
A commemorative blue plaque unveiled on the site of a former boarding house for Chinese sailors in Great Georges Square, in the city’s Chinatown, declares, “Wherever you are, you will be in our hearts”.
The following background has been supplied to us by Walter Fung, Vice-President of the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU) and editor of its magazine, China Eye:
The Chinese sailors served on the Atlantic convoys bringing food and other essential supplies to Britain. It was dangerous work in the face of hostile enemy action, and many lost their lives. They were in fact paid less than their British counterparts doing the same work and furthermore were not initially given a war bonus. Up to 20,000 Chinese seamen – about 14% of the entire British Merchant Navy – were based in Liverpool. At any one time, when not away on active service at sea, there were about 2,000 living in Liverpool.
However, at the end of the war, the Labour government decided that the men were ‘surplus to requirements’ and ‘undesirable aliens’ and wanted to remove all of them. A secret decision was made by the government to deport the men, and many were rounded up and forcibly put on ships, which had been arranged to receive them. No notice was given, and many wives and children believed that their husbands and fathers had deserted them.
The wives faced tremendous hardship. They were left destitute overnight. At that time, British women who married ‘aliens’ lost their British citizenship and were not entitled to any benefits or social security. They were on their own and their children were fatherless. The family breadwinner had gone, and the women were faced with poverty. Many were unable to cope, and their children were given up for adoption or placed in orphanages. Families were split up and siblings separated.
The reason for the deportations is not clear. There was a shortage of housing as 10,000 houses had been destroyed by German bombing and jobs were need for demobbed servicemen coming home. However, the number of houses occupied by the Chinese sailors was insignificant in number and the Chinese were not competing for any jobs. However, descendants of the men believe it was an act of racism.
It is also worth noting that many of the men were members of the Chinese Seamen’s Union, which was linked to the Communist Party of China.
The children of the deported seamen are demanding an apology from the British government, but the Home Office has so far not made any comment. The campaign is supported by local left Labour MP Kim Johnson and much of the credit for securing the plaque goes to Moira Kerry-Campbell of the Sound Agents, a Liverpool culture and heritage organisation.
We embed below the TV news report on the plaque unveiling from BBC North West Tonight. The CGTN documentary, The Secret Betrayal, gives a full background to the story.
The forthcoming issue of China Eye will feature a more detailed version of the report quoted above. We thank Walter Fung for his kind assistance.
