[1][2] 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".

[citation needed] 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.

He did that for a year, and then started wandering through the Western provinces, making a living as a carnival barker, gambler, card sharp, pickpocket, pimp, and successful real estate broker.

[1]The Chinese welcomed Cohen into their fold and eventually invited him to join the Tongmenghui, Sun Yat-sen's anti-Manchu organization.

[3][4] It was in pre-World War I 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.

On one occasion in October 1916, he was among thirteen soldiers who were charged with disturbing the peace after an altercation with the Calgary City Police.

"[3] Cohen fought with the Canadian Railway Troops in Europe during World War I where part of his job involved supervising the Chinese Labour Corps.

[1] Cohen looked for something new to do, and in 1922 he headed to China to help close a railway deal for Sun Yat-sen with Northern Construction and JW Stewart Ltd. After disembarking in Shanghai, Cohen went to see George Sokolsky, the New-York born journalist who worked for Sun's English-language Shanghai Gazette.

Cohen's colleagues started calling him Ma Kun (馬坤), and he soon became one of Sun's main protectors, shadowing the Chinese leader to conferences and war zones.

He rounded up weapons for the Chinese and even did work for the British intelligence agency, Special Operations Executive (SOE).

[1] Cohen stayed behind to fight, and when Hong Kong fell later that month, the Japanese imprisoned him at Stanley Internment Camp.

[1][3] Cohen sailed back to Canada, settled in Montreal and married Ida Judith Clark, who ran a women's boutique.

[verification needed] In 1947, when the newly formed United Nations began the debate on the UN Resolution on the Partition of Palestine, following the UN Special Committee on Palestine recommendation, Morris Cohen flew to San Francisco and convinced the head of the Chinese delegation to abstain from voting when he learned they planned to oppose partition.

His standing as a loyal aide to Sun Yat-sen helped him maintain good relations with both Kuomintang and Chinese Communist leaders,[1] and he soon was able to arrange consulting jobs with Vickers (planes), Rolls-Royce (engines) and Decca Radar.