Michael Alderton (essarem) notes that the above image is a low-resolution rendition of a Hong Kong newspaper photo of longtime aviation promoter, Gen. Morris ‘Two-Gun’ Cohen, which accompanies an article featuring the General’s April 3, 1959 arrival at Kai Tak onboard the inaugural flight of the BOAC Comet 4 London to Tokyo jet airliner service.
Hong Kong. April 3, 1959. PHOTO. After fog had delayed her arrival in Hong Kong, the Comet 4 flew into Kai Tak on her first scheduled commercial London-Tokyo flight. One of the passengers who flew in with her was General Morris‘Two-Gun’ Cohen, who is seen in the photograph seated in the back of a car, chewing a cigar and holding a walking stick.
Hong Kong. April 6, 1959. Two-Gun Cohen Refuses to Retire, by Andrew Salwyn. General Morris Cohen generally adopts a rather reserved attitude towards the press. ‘I have been misquoted so many times that the less I say for publication, the better it is,’ he explained. I secured through Hong Kong impresario, Harry Odell, a five-minute exclusive interview with the man who left quite a few people wondering: ‘What is he after this time?’ The General begins: ‘The interview I am going to give you will be short and straight to the point. I suppose you want to know just why I am here. Just to visit some friends and to renew some acquaintances.’ ‘I guess you have applied for a visa to visit China,’ I suggested. General Cohen’s reaction was immediate: ‘I have applied for a visa to go nowhere!’ he exclaimed. ‘I have got a lot of friends in Formosa and a lot of friends in Peking. If I were asked to go and visit them, I would, of course, be quite pleased to do so.’ ‘I understand you are receiving a pension from the Chinese government,’ I said. ‘That’s not true. I have refused a pension both from the people of Formosa and the people of Peking. I made it clear that I did not want to retire on a pension; I prefer to make a little commission on a few orders and still be active. I don’t feel like staying home writing my memoirs yet!’ At this point, the five minutes were over and the interview had to come to an end.
Hong Kong. April 1959. Hong Kong newspaper columnist, Jill Doggett, recalls: I had a very stimulating interview at the Jewish Recreation Club with General Two Gun Cohen when every newsman was on the lookout for him. I never wrote up the story. We had a ‘gentleman’s agreement’.
New York, April 1959. Two-Gun Cohen: Fabulous Soldier of Fortune by Robert Crichton. If you were lucky enough to be able to wander in and out of the elegant hotels in London’s fashionable Mayfair section, sooner or later you couldn't avoid being exposed to the pugnacious, bell-like tones of a lively, bull-like man – Morris Abraham Cohen. If you caught him at lunch, he will likely be calm, judicial and genial. As the day wears on, he is inclined to be loud, eloquent, charming, obnoxious, pugnacious, informative, bewildering and endlessly entertaining. After a career in China that covers half a century, and at a time when almost all the old China hands are either dead, dispersed or dispirited, Two-Gun Cohen is still a force and an influence in China to be reckoned with. He is certainly the only man – occidental or oriental – who can be received by, and exchange confidences one day with the hard austere Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek on Formosa, and the next day do the same thing with the leaders of Red China in Shanghai or Peking. Sitting around in the genteel tastefulness of a hotel lounge, it is hard at first, just looking, to imagine that this man is a man who has survived a score of violent wars, or who began his career as personal bodyguard to the great Dr Sun Yat-sen, the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln of the Chinese people. Then you hear him talk, and you listen to the strong, forceful timbre of his aggressive voice, and the picture gets more believable. As he spins out, in rough, colourful terms, some of the incidents that cluttered his unbelievably cluttered career, you begin to be able to see him as a full general in the Chinese National Army.
Following a visit that lasted for some six weeks, General Cohen left Hong Kong for Tokyo.
Hong Kong. May 20, 1959. General Morris ‘Two-Gun’ Cohen, one-time bodyguard of the late Dr Sun Yat-sen, left by BOAC for Tokyo yesterday.
All of the above has been taken from:
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