After about 18 months he was deported from Denmark for suggesting that the mustard sold by Denmark to Italy was being used in the manufacture of the mustard gas being used in Abyssinia. Italian invasion of Ethiopia. On the boat he met Paul Robeson, who had then left America and was establishing a name for himself at the Unity Theater in London. Makonnen subsequently settled in London in 1937. He became an active member of the International African Service Bureau that had formed under George Padmore's leadership. Writing about Makonnen's role in the Bureau, historian Carol Polsgrove presents him as the group's business manager, selling its journal, "Pan Africa", at political meetings and handling the bills.