MILAN BUSINESS MAN

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 61, 10 September 1945, Page 4

MILAN BUSINESS MAN

FORMER WELLINGTONIAN

(Official War Correspondent. N.2.E.F.)

LAKE COMO, September .7. In the town of Bellagio, beautifully situated on the shores of Lake Como, I met a New Zealander, Mr. George S. Prouse, who was formerly well known in tennis and musical circles in Wellington. He left New Zealand 35 years ago and has since been in business in Milan, although the recent war did much to interrupt the harmony of an otherwise pleasant life. When Italy entered the war in 1940 Mr. Prouse was imprisoned in Milan for two months as a result of anonymous complaints, but later was released. With his Italian wife and their son he was interned at Bellagio in a villa on the lakeside, which he admits was by no means an unpleasant form of internment. But when, following the Italian surrender, Germans moved into the hotel right next door, Mr. Prouse regarded this as much too close for either comfort or safety. So one day, when the weather was suitable for walking, the family shouldered their rucksacks and set out for a tramp along" the lakeside. With the assistance of persons who know how these things are done, that tramp ended in Switzerland, no great distance away. Once over the mountain border the Prouse family walked down a track to the nearest Swiss police station, where' they were received with rather more cordiality tha« they had expected, and thus began two years of comfortable internment at Lugano, which ended only about a month ago. Mr. Prouse's main concern now is to establish his business in Milan, and when conditions are suitable he hopes to take his family for a visit to New Zealand.