Alien Hunt in England: Hungarian Jew-playwright and School-teacher Ordered to Leave After Living for

Mr. Fryges Abel, a Hungarian Jew living in Birkenhead, and German master at the Beechcroft Educational Settlement, Birkenhead, has been ordered to leave England, under a Home Office order, believed to be connected with a tightening up of the aliens’ restriction regulations.

Mr. Abel has been living in England for years, and is married to an Englishwoman, the “Manchester Guardian” states. He is a playwright of considerable talent, and one of his plays was shortly to be produced by Mr. Gilbert Miller. Mr. Graham White, M.P., has written to the Home Secretary stating that Mr. Abel is a perfectly respectable citizen and has done valuable work.

In an interview, it adds, Mr. Abel said he regretted going because it meant parting from many good friends. “I began to speak English when I was six years old, and it is very strange to me”, he remarked satirically, “that people who could hardly say ‘Gaga’ when I was already reading Milton, Byron, and Shelley should have a voice in determining whether I am fit to stay in the country or not.

I happen to have been born between Lithuania and Estonia, so I cannot even speak the exact truth in saying that the country in which I was born was my own, Mr. Abel went on. I am quite convinced that the Home Secretary has done his duty, and that he knows what he is doing. Probably now that I am leaving Britain will embark on an ocean of prosperity, and the British, Celtic, and Angle-Saxon civilisation will no more be imperilled by my presence.

Mr. Abel came into notice with an original revue, “Ain’t it Betters”, which the Beechcroft Players presented about a year ago, and his one-act play “Melodrama” entered in the British Drama League Festival last year, caused a stir. He was engaged on a project for a municipal theatre in Birkenhead until he was informed of the Home Office decision. He has translated a number of Hungarian plays and novels into English. Among his interests over here he has worked for the Birkenhead branch of the Independent Labour Party.