For the first time, more than 2,400 Chinese nationals who died in both World Wars have been commemorated by name at a special Hong Kong memorial.

Almost 1,000 Chinese who died as part of the British and Allied effort in World War I, and about 1,500 in World War II, have had no known grave.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission inaugurated the Hong Kong Memorial.

Diplomats from Europe and Commonwealth countries laid wreaths at the elegant structure.

It names Chinese members of Britain's Royal Navy, Merchant Marine, Engineers and others.

Richard Kellaway, head of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, said it also names many from the Chinese Labour Corps.

"During the First World War they were recruited in China, in Hong Kong, in Singapore and taken to Europe," he said.

"They didn't fight on the front line but they were in support of the troops who were fighting on the front line.

"They ran the railways, they worked at the docks and as the war progressed they became skilled mechanics and actually repaired tanks and vehicles."

During the World War II, Chinese nationals helped defend then-British Hong Kong and Singapore against Japan. Mr Kellaway said many were also lost at sea.

"Here they were part of the Hong Kong auxiliary corps, they were in the merchant navy, the Royal British Merchant Navy, the Royal Navy, and clearly many of the people on this memorial here have no known grave because they were seamen, they were just lost at sea.

"That's why they need to be properly commemorated here."

Mr Kellaway said the naming of those Chinese nationals with no known grave finally puts right an omission.

(BBC)

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