Cohen, Maurice Abraham

Morris Cohen was born into a poor Jewish family in Rajanov , Poland. Soon after his birth, in 1887, the Coens emigrated to St. George (a county in the East End ) in East London ^[2] .

Cohen loved theaters, strolling through the streets, in the markets, eating well and boxing in the rings of the English capital more than attending the Free School for Jews ^[3] , and in April 1900 he turned out to be "a man suspected of trying to empty his pockets." The justice of the peace sent him to the Hayes vocational school, an institution created by Lord Rothschild to care for and educate the wayward Jewish guys. When he was released in 1905, his parents sent young Morris to western Canada with the hope that the fresh air and open plains of the New World would re-educate him.

Cohen first worked on a farm near Whitewood in Saskatchewan . He plowed the land, looked after livestock and learned to shoot with weapons, played cards. He did this for a year, and then started wandering again, not in the streets and alleys of London, but in the Western provinces. Earned a living by playing carnivals, playing cards, and cheating. He succeeded as a real estate broker, which led him to prison again.

Cohen also made friends with Chinese expats who came to work on the Canadian Pacific Railway . Cohen became friends with the owner of a Chinese restaurant. During dinner, the robber burst in, Cohen knocked him out and threw him out into the street - London practice came in handy. Such an act was unheard of in those days, since few of the whites ever came to the aid of the Chinese. The Chinese introduced Cohen to the circle of his acquaintances and, ultimately, an energetic young man was invited to protect his leader Sun Yat-sen . When he, after the failure of the revolution, toured the world, collecting donations for a new rebellion, he came to Canada. Sun called him to join the Tongmenhe , led by Sun Yat-sen of the anti-Manchu organization.

Morris Cohen did not come off from Canadian life. He soon moved to the city of Edmonton in neighboring Alberta. There he became the manager of one of the leading provincial capital real estate agencies and, having demonstrated extraordinary abilities, was appointed, on the personal recommendation of Attorney General Alberta Sir Charles Cross, the Sworn Commissioner, an appointment offered only to “worthy and decent people.”

Cohen fought during World War I as part of the Canadian Railway Troops in Europe. His duties included overseeing Chinese laborers. He also took part in fierce battles on the Western Front, especially in the Battle of Paschendale . After the war, he returned to Canada. But the economic situation worsened, the days of the real estate boom passed, and Cohen began to look for another occupation.

At that time, Sun Yat-sen arrived in Canada (to raise money for the revolutionary struggle), who earlier, in 1905, headed the association of Chinese revolutionary organizations in Tokyo - the Chinese Revolutionary Union, Tongmenhui . The adventurous adventurer helped Sun Yat-sen conclude a deal with Northern Construction and JW Stewart Ltd. At the same time, his Chinese friends recommended Morris as bodyguard to Sun Yatsen.

After moving with the boss to Shanghai , Cohen trained fighters of the armed forces in boxing and shooting. He lacked a good knowledge of the Chinese language and spoke a lite form of a hybrid Cantonese dialect . But this did not cause problems, since, starting with Sun Yat-sen's wife, Song Qingling and ending with many of their entourage, everyone had a Western education and spoke English. Cohen’s colleagues began to call him in the Chinese manner of Ma Kun, and he soon became one of Sun Yat-sen’s main bodyguards, accompanying the Chinese leader at conferences and military exercises. After Cohen received a bullet wound in one of the battles, he began to carry a second pistol. The Western community was intrigued by the paired armament of bodyguard Sun Yat-sen and began to call him "Cohen - Two Nagans." The name has taken root.

Sun Yat-sen died of cancer in 1925, and Cohen went on to serve other leaders of the South China Kuomintang , such as Sun Yat-sen's son, Sun Fo, or brother-in-law Sun Yat-sen, banker Sun Ji-zen, and also collaborated with military leaders such as Jishen ) and Chen Jitang. He was also familiar with Chiang Kai-shek , whom he had known since Chan was the commander of the Wampu Academy . But his contacts with Chan, however, were minimal since Cohen joined the southern leaders who were in opposition to Chan. Cohen was responsible for the safety of his bosses, and also acquired weapons and gunboats. Ultimately, he received the rank of general of the active service, although he never led any military formations.

When the Japanese invaded China in 1937, Cohen immediately joined the liberation struggle. He took out weapons for the Chinese, and also worked for the British intelligence services, including the Office of Special Operations . During the Japanese attack on Hong Kong in December 1941, Cohen rescued Song Qingling and her sister, Song Eileen , by placing them on one of the last aircraft flying from a British colony.

Cohen himself remained in the city to participate in hostilities, and when Hong Kong was occupied that same month, the Japanese threw him into Stanley prison camp. He was beaten there, and he was in Stanley until he was exchanged for Japanese prisoners of war in late 1943.

After these events, Cohen returned to Canada and settled in Montreal , where he married Judith Clark, who ran a thriving women's store. But a calm life, apparently, disgusted him, and he regularly visited China in search of work with the hope of establishing business ties. Mostly, Cohen talked with old friends, sat in the lobby of the hotels and talked about his exploits. Often these were his own myths, which, along with the inevitable additions of others, widely spread heroic rumors about him, which led to a lot of misinformation. So, one of such myths was the story that he allegedly was related to the creation of modern China.

After the Communist victory in the Civil War in 1949, Cohen was one of the few people who was able to maintain normal relations with Taiwan and mainland China.

His long absences from Canada led to the severance of family relationships, and he divorced Judith in 1956. Cohen then moved to his widowed sister, Lihi Cooper, in Salford , England. There he was surrounded by siblings, nephews and nieces, and became the beloved family patriarch.

His status as an assistant to Sun Yat-sen helped him maintain good relations with both Taiwanese and the Chinese Communist Party , and he was soon able to work as a consultant at Vickers and Rolls-Royce . His last visit to China took place at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution as an honored guest of Zhou Enlai .

Morris Cohen died in 1970 at Salford and was buried in the Blakely Jewish Cemetery in Manchester .

• Epstein, Israel

• Charles Drage. Two-Gun Cohen (1954). (written with the help of Cohen)
• Paolo Frere. The Pedlar and the Doctor (1995)
• Daniel S. Levy. Two-Gun Cohen: A Biography (1997)