1940 – Minister for Overseas Affairs Lt.Gen Wu Techen (r), Head of Mission, and Maj.Gen Morris A. Cohen (l), A.D.C to General Wu and Treasurer for the Mission, welcomed on their arrival at Batavia Railway Station..jpg

IMAGE: Oct 18, 1940 – Minister for Overseas Affairs Lt.Gen Wu Techen (r), Head of Mission, and Maj.Gen Morris A. Cohen (l), A.D.C to General Wu and Treasurer for the Mission securely holding on to bulging briefcase, enthusiastically welcomed on their arrival at Batavia Railway Station by leading members of the local Chinese community.

Hong Kong. Sept. 25, 1940. Chinese Generals Wu Techen and Morris A. Cohen take off from Hong Kong harbour on board the China Clipper flying boat bound for Manila, where they stayed at Malacanan Palace as the guests of President and Madame Manuel Quezon. Minister for Overseas Affairs, General Wu Techen, was heading a goodwill and fund-raising mission, which travelled extensively for four months throughout the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, Malaya, and Burma, before returning to Chungking along the Burma Road, arriving in the Chinese wartime capital in early February 1941. (General Cohen in his own words): Chiang Kai-shek sent Wu Te-chen off on a mission to visit the major Chinese overseas communities throughout the Far East and get them thoroughly organized on a wartime basis. He took with him a staff of four including myself. Every single place we visited was in Japanese hands within the next eighteen months. Our first stop was Manila, where we stayed in the Presidential Palace as guests of President Manuel Quezon. I’d known him for fifteen years. For ten days we went speechifying all over the Philippines. My boss must have addressed upwards of half a million Chinese. Everybody was good to us. When we got down to Java the atmosphere was rather different. The Filipinos quite thought that the Japanese might attack them some day, but they were a light-hearted lot and they weren’t worrying much till it actually happened. The Dutch, on the other hand, had just seen their country overrun and conquered and were taking things very seriously indeed. The Dutch were thoroughly war-minded and wanted information about our A.R.P. warning system and how we constructed our dugouts in Chungking. (Extracts from: Commander Charles H. Drage, Two-Gun Cohen, Jonathan Cape, London 1954)

General Morris A. Cohen, a conspicuous member of General Wu Te-chen’s mission, is interviewed by members of the local press following his arrival in Singapore:

Singapore, November 15, 1940. Gen. Wu Te-chen In Singapore: General Wu Te-chen, Minister for Overseas Affairs in the Chungking Government, and his entourage including London-born Aide-de-Camp, General M. Cohen, arrived here this morning by plane from Medan. ‘Whatever I may say, I say as a Chinese,’ Gen. Morris A. Cohen, A.D.C. to Gen. Wu Te-chen, told a reporter yesterday. Gen. Cohen has been associated with China for more than 20 years. General Cohen spoke with earnestness when he said that there would be only one result to the Sino-Japanese war: the defeat of China’s enemy. ‘Japan might win many battles,’ he said, ‘but China was sure to gain the final victory.’ Gen. Cohen was A.D.C to Dr Sun Yat-sen, of whom he was a personal friend. Very modest and unassuming, this friend of China when interviewed declared that the tour through the Philippines, the Celebes, Java and Sumatra, had been a big success. ’The Chinese people were very happy to meet General Wu, and hear him give them a real picture of the situation now prevailing in China,’ said General Cohen.

British press reports following General Cohen’s arrival in Singapore:

London, November 15, 1940. Chinese Tour. General Wu Te-chen, Minister for Overseas Affairs in the Chinese Government at Chungking, arrived at Singapore yesterday by plane from Medan, Sumatra. His suite includes a London-born aide-de-camp, General Cohen.

London. General Co-Hen in Singapore. I observe from an agency message now on my desk, that General Wu Te-Chen, Chinese Overseas Affairs Minister, now talking goodwill with British representatives at Singapore, is accompanied by General Co-Hen. Now this is interesting. I tracked Co-Hen down to the remarkable fellow called Morris Abraham Cohen. Born in the East End of London, Cohen has been bobbing up at crisis moments in Chinese affairs ever since the days of Sun Yat Sen. He was considered, 10 years ago, to be the diplomat and financial force behind the Nationalist Movement. This may be so. Chinese inner diplomatic circles trust him implicitly, talk freely with him. Odd combination of astute commercial man and fanatic idealist. An ardent worker for Sino-British friendship, Cohen turned up here on a trade mission 5 years ago before returning to the war in China.