How a Chinese general helped create the Jewish state
By CYRIL SHERERMorris ‘Two-Gun’ Cohen(photo credit: COURTESY CYRIL SHERER)
IN MAY 1945, 58-year-old Morris Abraham Cohen, a retired Jewish general in the pre-Communist Chinese army, was summoned from Montreal to San Francisco by a group of Jewish leaders. A conference was being held to set the agenda for the first meeting of the United Nations in November 1947.Resolution 181 would discuss the partition of Palestine, still under British mandate, into a Jewish and an Arab state. Fifty nations sent delegates; every vote was crucial. Security Council members, the UK, USA, USSR and China, plus France, had the right of veto, which it was rumored that China would use. Many lobbyists came to San Francisco. A group of prominent Jewish leaders had gathered to gain support for a Jewish state.So who was this elderly Jew from London’s East End, nicknamed “Two-Gun Cohen,” and why was his presence so important? The Jewish leaders needed to gain access to the Chinese delegation. But how? No one is sure who thought of it first, but someone remembered Morris Cohen, still influential in China, closely connected with its first president, Dr. Sun Yat-sen and a lifelong friend of his widow, who happened to be the sister of T.V. Soong, head of the Chinese delegation.Another sister was the wife of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, China’s president.Cohen was summoned and came the very next day. Some members of the group were skeptical; it seemed an unlikely possibility. But when Cohen arrived, he was warmly greeted by the two leaders of the Chinese delegation, T.V. Soong, and the Chinese ambassador to Canada, Dr. Wellington Koo. The delegation was impressed and agreed that Cohen should meet the head of the Chinese delegation.This turned out to be General Wu, who in 1929 had promoted him to be a major general in charge of the 19th Field Army. Co- hen smiled as he came out of the meeting. He had produced a copy of an article by Sun Yat-sen written in 1924 in support of the Zionist movement, which reminded Sun of China’s renaissance. China abstained from voting. This was critical; Resolution 181 was passed, and Israel gained independence a year later.How did this unlikely event come about? Because of a Jewish Chinese general? It was actually the result of an equally unlikely but nevertheless true story.Morris Cohen was born in 1887 in Miaczyn, a small Polish village, and was taken to England at the age of three with his many siblings. His father, Yosef Leib, was a tailor. They lived in the East End of London in tiny accommodations.As a youth, Morris spent most of his time on the streets. He was a big boy, and soon got into bad company, becoming a petty thief, a pickpocket, a window-smasher for an itinerant glazier, and at the age of 10, a prize fighter, which is how he got his broken nose.Inevitably he was picked up by the police and brought before a magistrate, who sent him to “reform school” for six years. Cohen later said it was the best thing that could have happened. Inter alia, he was taught military drill, which proved useful in later life.When discharged, his family didn’t know what to do with him. A local immigration officer suggested sending him to Canada. Yosef Leib had an old friend from Miaczyn who had a farm in Saskatchewan to which Cohen was subsequently sent. He was passed on to another farmer, where cowhands taught him how to play poker and how to shoot pistols with both hands. He spent the next few years in Edmonton, Alberta, selling real estate, playing cards, and staying one step ahead of the police.He became involved with the local Chinese community, who had been brought to Canada to build railroads. He became their spokesman, as well as a commissioner for oaths. They also financed him as a professional poker player. It was at this time that he first met Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who was in Canada raising funds for the impending Chinese Revolution, becoming his body- guard. Cohen even helped him buy guns for China.In 1922, because of his experience with Chinese railroad workers in Canada, he was sent to China by a company hoping for a franchise to build railroads. He met T.V. Soong, at the time the richest man in China, who found him a job with Dr. Sun, now president of the Chinese Republic. With his past experiences, he trained a group of 250 men to guard Sun. He was now Colonel Co- hen, increasingly trusted by Sun for more and more important missions, including armament purchases overseas.Gregarious by nature, he came to know almost everyone of importance in China.British officials didn’t know what to make of him, an East End Jew with a Cockney accent who seemed to have endless connections – certainly not an establishment type.It was he who broke the secret that the Japanese used poison gas in Manchuria in 1937, for which he was very much wanted by them. When they invaded Hong Kong in 1942 he was captured, along with Mme Sun Yat-sen. He stayed behind in order to help release her. Meantime, he was imprisoned and beaten and finally repatriated to Canada in a prisoner exchange in 1943.When the Communists gained power in 1948, he was one of the few people persona grata to both the Chinese Republic and Tai- wan. He had known Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai for years, and there are photographs of them together.Thus Cohen played a major role for Israel at a critical time. He died in 1970 in Manchester, England at the age of 83, and was buried in the Salford Jewish cemetery.His tombstone, in Hebrew and English, is also written in Mandarin at the request of the Chinese Embassy in London, upon instructions from Mme Sun, who was then vice-chairman of China. She never forgot her old friend or his service to her country.Both China and Taiwan were represented at the funeral for a great man, one point on which they could agree.Postscript : I wrote this article not only to commemorate Israel’s upcoming 70th anniversary and Morris Cohen’s role in 1945, but also because we are of the same family.My grandmother, Sara Scherer, was Cohen’s aunt. He came to see me in Jerusalem in 1966 while here on another mission for Israel, which I will describe in a future article.
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