DRAMATIC STORY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 226, 18 May 1932, Page 2

DRAMATIC STORY

POWER BEHIND CHINA AN EAST" END ' ' BOt WAR LQRD AND DIPLOMAT This is the story of Morris Abraham Gohen, Chinese war lord and diplomatist, merqhant and flnancier, reformer and id'.ealist, who started life in poverty in V%e East End of London less than 4Vj years ago. His astonishing career was revealed to a London "Daily Mail" reporter by his brother, a Manchester merchant. Cohen is the financial and diplomatic" f orce behind modern China — his parents believe he is the real Preside.nt of the country — and he holds the rank of general in the Chinese 19th Army, which has been engaged on the Shanghai front. He frequently corresponds with his parents in Manchester, and tells them that he has a fervent hope that one day he must be instrumental in creating a united China under conditions of government similar to those of the Western Empires. He started with no material advantage in life, his only assets being an incurable disposition for roving and a far-seeing appreciation of Orientals and sympathy for them. He knew many of these in the East End of Lpndon, and when in his Canadian travels He reached Alberta and settled in Edmonton as a realestate dealer he became. a friend of the Chinese settlers. In acting as counsellor and friend to those who found themselves in difAculties he came to know them and understand their ways. On the outbreak of the Great War Cohen is said to have mobilised a Chinese labour battalion, which saw serviee in France. He came in contact with Chinese offlcials who, at the close of the war, made him a member of a powerful and secret Chinese political organisation. Cohen went to China and, by his financial and organising ability, became a powerful factor in the rise of the Chinese Nationalist Party. He assisted in one of the escapes from China of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and, from being "back-stage" assistant to the Chinese Nationalist leader h.e actually took on much of his political work. Now Cohen's commands are obeyed to the letter in the Chinese Nationalist movement. As an -ambassador of trade, between China and the West he is credited with having brought valuable orders to Great Britain. He was confidential adviser to San Fou, Sun Yat-sen's son, who _ conducted the Chinese economic mission to Bi'itain in 1928. His parents, who live in Bury, Newroad, Manchester, watched the China- Japan war more closely than any family in Britain.