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Cohen's gravestone in Manchester England.
Helped the Chinese fight against the Japanese in World War Two and tried to help the Nationalists against the Communists.
Morris “Two-Gun” Cohen was the one and only Jewish Chinese General and,
for a time, was head of the Chinese Secret Service! One of his colleagues was
Dr. Moses Schwarzberg, a Russian Jew who helped save China, for a time,
from the Communists.
The official languages in the Chinese Secret Service, because of the help by Cohen and Schwarzberg
during this time were Chinese, Yiddish and English.
Born in Poland to a large observant Jewish family of eight children, Abraham
Morris Cohen was a handful almost from the time he could walk. His father beat
him when he was three years old for wandering away from his East London home.
A sturdy lad, he responded to Christian boys’ bantering by – at age eight –
knocking out a 12-year-old. A boxing promoter signed him to fight professionally.
He called himself ”Fat Moisha” or “Cockney Cohen,” but would never enter the
ring on a Friday – the Jewish Sabbath. He feared his father’s wrath.
His family was poor and he earned pocket change by picking
pockets. Ultimately, he was recruited by a man known as “Harry the Gonof”
But he eventually was arrested. Then he was sent, at age 12, to a variety of reform schools. His angry
parents borrowed the money and sent him, aged 16, to a friend farming in Wappala,
then in the Assiniboia territory – later part of Saskatchewan.
Cohen’s life changed drastically one evening in Saskatoon and on
Sunday evenings, he enjoyed a large Chinese dinner and then gamble in the back
of the café. But, when he turned up one night at one of his favorite haunts, he
found the aged Chinese restaurant owner, Mah Sam, being held up by a hoodlum.
Cohen decided to take action and went up to the assailant and hit him hard in the head – disarmed him – and then threw him bodily
out of the restaurant.
This action opened up a relationship with the Chinese people. To the Chinese, he became a hero at a time when anti-Asiatic feeling in Canada
was even greater than its anti-Semitism. Cohen became the only white man
admitted to the ranks of the secret Chinese Tong.
Ultimately, Morris Cohen journeyed to China – now being led into modernity by
Dr. Sun Yat Sen, and he became commander of the President’s 250-man bodyguard.
Several attempts were made to assassinate Chinese President Sun Yat-Sen.
On one occasion, Cohen fought off three assailants attacking Sun on a train. He was nicked in his left hand.
The wound made him think. “Supposing it had been my right arm. As soon as we
got back to Canton, I got me a second gun, another Smith and Wesson revolver.”
Journalists dubbed him “Two-Gun” Cohen.
Two-Gun was of great service to the Chinese. A veteran of World War I, he taught
his new friends boxing and the use of weapons. He became a military adviser, and
an arms dealer. In 1922, he was named Director of the Chinese secret service.
Morris Cohen had a very limited knowledge of Chinese, but in his new post, he
was able to use Yiddish quite a bit. One of his confreres was interpreter -Doctor Moishe
Schwarzberg, and the two would chat in Yiddish!
The doctor had an urgent need to meet with President Sun and made his way to Shanghai but found his way to the President barred by
a highly-protective bodyguard. Schwartzberg gathered that the “huge man with a
shaved head and two pistols in his belt” was in charge but when he tried pleading
his case, in Chinese and Russian, the chief bodyguard responded, in English,
“Who the hell are you and what the hell do you want?”
When he learned who he was, Cohen switched to Yiddish. A collaboration of the
two Moishes was born. When Schartzberg made his presentation to Doctor Sun,
it became apparent that the Chinese President couldn’t read Russian. The
multilingual Jewish doctor was immediately offered a job as an interpreter.
Two-Gun put it this way: “Listen, kid, how would you like to stay on as Dr. Sun’s
confidential secretary. He likes you.” And so Chinese spies worked in Chinese,
Yiddish and English!
Cohen was named to command the Chinese 19th field army. Time Magazine,
in 1931, reported that Cohen “was named by the Canton government as a
Brigadier General.” He led Nationalist troops in fighting against both the
Japanese and communist Chinese.
When the Japanese entered World War II, in 1941, Cohen was captured in
Hong Kong. The Japanese now had a great enemy – but they didn’t know it.
By identifying himself as a Canadian businessman, he fooled the Japanese.
Ultimately, Morris Cohen was among a small number of prisoners released in
exchange for important Japanese officials held in the US. He returned to Canada.
“When we pulled into Montreal,” he said. “ I picked up my parcels and stepped
down on the platform – a free man.”
On Friday, Dec. 3rd, 1943, the Montreal Gazette reported “A few dozen men and
women met early yesterday at Bonaventure station for the sole purpose of meeting
the fairytale Chinese general, a Jew by birth a Canadian Citizen, Gen. Morrice
Cohen a former aide-de-camp to the famous rebuilder of China, Dr. Sun Yat sen.”
Cohen married a Montreal woman but the affair didn’t last. He planned to return
to England – but he had one great service to offer to the Jewish people.
In 1945, the United Nations was being formed in San Francisco. And a resolution
proposing the partitioning of Palestine into two states – one Jewish and the other
Arabic – was to be submitted to the new organization. The international Jewish
community was on hand to do what it could to see that the Resolution was passed.
Cohen flew to San Francisco and was able to convince the head of the Chinese delegation
to abstain from voting when he learned they planned to oppose partition. This happened because the Chinese delegate when he was in the Chinese Army was promoted to General by Cohen and they became friends. So as a friendly gesture to an old friend he agreed to Abstain China's vote in the UN. That
abstention ultimately helped ensure passage of the measure partitioning Palestine –
and allowing the creation of Israel.
He died in Manchester and was buried there with a trilingual headstone – in
English, traditional Hebrew and in Chinese as a tribute from the people he served
so well. The tribute identified him as “Mah Sam” – as close as the Chinese could
get to Morris Cohen. It means “clenched fist.”
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