Morris ‘Two-Gun’ Cohen a hero in China

By Joe Spier

CALGARY, Alberta, Canada — What is a nice Jewish boy from Western Canada doing as a General in the Chinese Army? Well, not exactly a boy, maybe not so nice, but definitely Jewish.

Morris Abraham Cohen was born on August 3, 1887 in a Polish shtetl. While an infant, his family fled Poland to escape the pogroms rampaging through Eastern Europe and settled in the East End of London, England into a life of piety and poverty.

For Morris the pall of poverty was far greater than the path of piety, so at the age of 12 he headed for the streets of London to improve his lot. First, he became a prizefighter, boxing under the names, “Fat Moishe” and “Cockney Cohen,” then a shill for a petty thief, “Harry the Gonif” and finally a pickpocket, sort of a Yiddish Artful Dodger.

In 1900, Morris Cohen was arrested for lifting a man’s wallet and sentenced to 5 years rehabilitation in a Jewish reform school. Upon Morris’s release at the age of 18, his parents who were not keen to have Morris return, arranged for him to work on a farm near Wapella, a town in what would become the Province of Saskatchewan. And so Morris crossed the ocean, took a CPR train to Western Canada where he labored as a farmhand but also learned in the Wild West, the skills of dice control, playing card manipulation and pistol marksmanship.

After a year, Morris ran away with the circus, becoming a sideshow barker, enticing rubes to part with their money to watch a show not worth seeing. Ending up in Winnipeg, he began to sell knock-offs before that word was even invented – fake gold rings and jeweled watches. While in Winnipeg, Morris spent 6 months in “cheder” (a Yiddish word colloquially meaning, “jail”) on a prostitution related charge.

At the age of 22, Morris moved to Saskatoon where he often frequented illegal Chinese gambling dens particularly one run by Mah Sam in the back of his café. In 1910, a fateful encounter would later change Morris Cohen’s life forever. Upon entering Mah Sam’s café for food and gambling, Morris stumbled into an armed robbery. He cold-cocked the robber and threw him out. At that time, a white man coming to the aid of a Chinese was almost unheard of. Morris and Mah Sam soon became close friends. Mah Sam had a secret. Not only was he a café owner and a gambler but also a revolutionary, a supporter and fundraiser for Sun Yat-sen, the Chinese republican leader who was attempting to seize power in China and would later become the much-revered father of modern China. Mah Sam introduced Morris Cohen to this world.

While in Saskatoon, Cohen went back to “cheder,” one year in the Prince Albert Penitentiary for pickpocketing. Upon his release in 1911, he moved to Edmonton where he became a successful real estate salesman in the rapidly expanding city. Alas, success came to an end in 1916 with the collapse of Edmonton’s economy and the closure of his real estate office. By that time, the Great War had broken out and Cohen with a sense of patriotism and limited other prospects enlisted in the Canadian Army. Cohen’s army service was distinguished by contracting gonorrhea in England and 9 months of front line service in France. Cohen returned to Canada in February 1919 and was honorably discharged in Edmonton. He was awarded the British War and Victory Medals.

Cohen returned to selling real estate and to gambling. However, Chinese nationalism, introduced to him by Mah Sam, obsessed him. He soon immersed himself in the Chinese community, traveling throughout Western Canada, attending their lodge meetings, advocating on their behalf and fund raising for their cause. He and his work came to the attention of Sun Yat-sen, who by 1922, had established a self-proclaimed military government in Southern China and was its president, though the North was still in the hands of local warlords and civil war was flaring. Approached by Sun Yat-sen to assist in closing a railroad construction contract for China with a Canadian firm, Cohen sailed for China on November 23, 1922 with eight guns secreted in his luggage. With Cohen’s help, the contract was successfully concluded.

Cohen who had never personally met Sun Yat-sen arranged to meet the President. Cohen was mesmerized by Sun’s force of personality and enthralled by his wife, Soong. He must have also impressed Sun Yat-sen for Sun offered Cohen a job as his bodyguard and aide-de-camp. Cohen promptly accepted. As the head of security for the President, the self-aggrandizing Cohen took for himself the title of General.

The work was at times dangerous as there were several assassination attempts on the life of Sun Yat-sen and often Sun and Cohen would come under fire from opposing forces while touring Sun’s troops fighting the Northern warlords.

On one such occasion, Cohen took a bullet in his left arm. Concerned that if the bullet had struck his right arm he would be unable to fire his pistol, Cohen taught himself to fire with either hand and began carrying two guns, one on each side. People started calling him “Two-Gun,” a nickname that stuck and the legend of “Two-Gun” Cohen was born.

In 1925, Sun Yat-sen died of cancer. Cohen was devastated. His hero was dead and he was out of work.

Following the death of Sun Yat-sen, Cohen remained in China. For the next 12 years, he acted as an advisor, courier, liaison and procurer for various Chinese officials. He proved to be an effective go-between with foreign governments. Cohen was a man of influence, the extent of which is a matter of some debate. He was a particularly skilled arms dealer, purchasing weapons and munitions throughout Europe to arm the forces of Chen Jitang the Governor (read that as “Warlord’) of Canton Province. Arming Chen’s military was viewed as so vital that Cohen was made a General, a real rank this time. Cohen received a fee for each purchase and became wealthy but spent all that he earned.

In 1937, Japan invaded China. Chen Jitang with Cohen in tow retreated to the safety of the British Colony of Hong Kong. Also residing there was Sun Yat-sen’s widow, Soong. Cohen, who retained great affection for her, became her protector.  Cohen, now 50, was active in the war effort, running guns into China and raising relief funds. Japan attacked Hong Kong on December 8, 1941. Cohen managed to place Soong, who was in danger of capture by the Japanese, onto one of the last planes out of the embattled Colony. He remained. Hong Kong surrendered to Japan on Christmas day 1941.

Cohen was captured by the Japanese and placed in an internment camp where, suffering from malnutrition and disease, he languished for 14 months. In February 1943, all of the Canadian internees including Cohen became part of a prisoner exchange. The Canadians were put on a ship and ended up in Montreal.

While in Montreal sitting out the war, Cohen met and married Judith Clark in a ceremony at Temple Emanu-el. He spent his time looking for work, talking of his life in China and living off Judith’s salary.

As the war ended, the United Nations, newly formed, was to become seized with the Palestine problem. Zionist representatives were actively lobbying U.N. members but had no entree to the Chinese delegation. Morris Cohen was approached for help. Cohen who himself was an ardent Zionist, often speaking even when living in China of the need for a Jewish homeland, readily agreed. The U.N. was meeting in San Francisco and Cohen went there to introduce the Chinese delegation, all of whom he knew personally, to the Jewish representatives. These lobbying efforts, all orchestrated by Cohen, were successful in laying the Jewish cause before the Chinese who likely had never before heard of Zionism. Later when the “partition” vote was to be presented to the U.N. and it was believed that China was prepared to vote against the establishment of the Jewish State, Cohen met with the Chinese Ambassador to Canada who was part of the Chinese delegation to the U.N. Rather than voting against partition, China, conceivably because of that meeting, abstained.

In the early 1950s, his marriage about to end in divorce, Cohen moved back to England. He only returned to Canada once, to appear as a mystery guest on the television panel show “Front Page Challenge”.

Cohen continued to make frequent trips to China, living off the largesse of the Government. He found some consulting work but his influence was waning. Much of his time was spent regaling people with stories, some exaggerated, of his adventures in China.

On September 7, 1970, at the age of 83, Morris “Two-Gun” Cohen, juvenile delinquent, petty criminal, soldier, bodyguard, gun runner, General, prisoner of war, Zionist, died. He was buried in his tallis at the Blakely Jewish Cemetery in Manchester.   Representatives from both the Governments of Communist Mainland China and Nationalist Taiwan attended the funeral. Morris Cohen’s black granite headstone is engraved with a blessing in Chinese, a parting tribute from his venerated Soong.