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Morris Abraham "Two-Gun" Cohen (1887–1970) was a British and Canadian adventurer of Jewish origin who became aide-de-camp to Sun Yat-sen and a major-general in the Chinese National Revolutionary Army. ==Early years== According to a 1954 biography written by Charles Drage with Cohen's assistance, Morris Cohen was born in London in 1889 to a family that had just arrived from Poland. However Cohen was actually born in 1887 into a poor Jewish family in Radzanów, Poland, about 45 miles northwest of Warsaw. Soon after his birth the Cohens escaped the pogroms of Eastern Europe and emigrated to the St George in the East parish in London's East End.〔Historically it was stated that Cohen was born in London in 1889. This is what is written in the Charles Drage book, which Cohen essentially dictated to his friend Rose Klyne from his home in Montreal, and Klyne and Drage then organized as best they could. As Klein noted in a 19 January 1994 interview, "He just reeled off stories of which he had experienced and episodes of his life... I don’t know if I got it in perfect chronological order. I am not at all sure. There was no time sense in any of it. I had to find out where they belonged, what part of history went where." After that Drage gave it a narrative thread. Cohen’s sister, Leah Cooper, with whom Cohen lived in England following his return from Canada in the 1950s, though stated following his death in 1970 that it was an open family secret that Morris Cohen was actually born in Poland and came over as a young child. Her son Victor further confirmed this in a 6 May 1995 interview, noting that his uncle arrived in the United Kingdom as a "babe in arms." Cohen was also born in 1887 and not 1889. This 1887 date has been confirmed by Victor Cooper and numerous other Cohen relatives. Cohen's own death certificate lists his date of birth as August 1887, and his tombstone reads: "In Loving Memory of General Morris Abraham Cohen who died 7 September 1970 aged 83 years old," which means he was born in 1887. The 1889 date was used when Cohen was arrested as a youngster in London for picking pockets. By claiming a younger age it ensured that Morris could go to an industrial school where he could learn a trade. As a result he would not be given a more severe punishment and place of incarceration. Cohen, though, quite regularly gave the earlier August 1887 date as the time of his birth. For instance, when he is admitted to jail in Winnipeg in April 1909, he is listed as 21, which works out for an August 1887 birth. (Eastern Judicial District Gaol, Description of Prisoners Committed, January 1908 - January 1912. Archives Accession GR1560.) When he is interviewed by the Shanghai Police in March 1929, he gives his birthdate as 3 August 1887. (Shanghai Municipal Police Records Box 2 File 101) Similarly, records at the Public Record Office at Kew in England, memorandums from the Canadian Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs as well as files from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police state that he was born in 1887.〕 Cohen loved the theaters, the streets, the markets, the foods and the boxing arenas of the British capital more than he did the Jews' Free School, and in April 1900 he was arrested as "a person suspected of attempting to pick pockets". A magistrate sent him to the Hayes Industrial School, an institution set up by the likes of Lord Rothschild to care for and train wayward Jewish lads. He was released in 1905 and Cohen's parents shipped the young Morris off to western Canada with the hope that the fresh air and open plains of the New World would reform his ways. Cohen initially worked on a farm near Whitewood, Saskatchewan. He tilled the land, tended the livestock and learned to shoot a gun and play cards. He did that for a year, and then started wandering through the Western provinces, making a living as a carnival talker, gambler, grifter and successful real estate broker. Some of his activities landed him in jail. Cohen also became friendly with some of the Chinese exiles who had come to work on the Canadian Pacific Railways. He loved the camaraderie and the food, and in Saskatoon came to the aid of a Chinese restaurant owner who was being robbed. Cohen's training in the alleyways of London came in handy, and he knocked out the thief and tossed him out into the street. Such an act was unheard of at the time, as few white men ever came to the aid of the Chinese. The Chinese welcomed Cohen into their fold and eventually invited him to join the Tongmenghui, Sun Yat-sen's anti-Manchu organization. Cohen began to advocate for the Chinese. Morris Cohen soon moved to the city of Edmonton in the neighbouring province of Alberta. There he became manager of one of the provincial capital’s leading real estate agencies and was appointed, on the personal recommendation of the Attorney General Sir Charles Wilson Cross, to serve the province as a Commissioner of Oaths, an appointment offered only to "fit and proper persons".〔1 April 1913 appointments made under the provisions of "An Act Respecting Commissioners to Administer Oaths".〕 It was in pre-WW1 Edmonton that Cohen commenced his long and varied military career by recruiting members of the Chinese community and training them in drill and musketry on behalf of Dr Sun Yat-sen’s representative organization in Canada. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Morris Cohen (adventurer)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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