Chinese and North Africa – 1930s – any anecdotes?

Having just spent some time in North Africa I’m sort of interested, but completely lacking in knowledge, about the history of Chinese in the region in the 1930s and during WW2. It is actually the case that there may not be any history beyond the movies….it may just be that Chinese were incorporated into films about the area at the time to add a little Orientalist mystery…

In Casablanca (1942) Rick (Bogart) sits in the casino portion of Rick’s and alongside him sit two smart modern Chinese women in swank dresses and furs gambling and smoking….

In Pepe Le Moko (1937), Jules Duvivier’s masterpiece about a French criminal (Gabin) trapped in the Algiers kasbah a short intro to the mysteries of the kasbah at the start notes the strange groups that inhabit this netherworld including “Les Chinois”….

Yet I can find no references to the Chinese in Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia during the 1930s or during WW2 (with the exception of Chinese-Vietnamese-French Monsieur D. mentioned in Peter Mayne’s A Year in Marrakesh during the 1950s) …..Any one got anything?????