Hunting New Quarters

Locals lounging about the Grand-Place of the Belgian town of Chievres--hardly grand and barely a place--stared sullenly as the cavalcade of black limousines and a police escort swirled up. "Things like that don't happen much around here," allowed one, "so we figured that it must be that Chape [Walloon dialect for SHAPE] thing again." It was. NATO's General Lyman Lemnitzer, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, was hunting new quarters.

Under Charles de Gaulle's eviction order, SHAPE must vacate its lodgings outside Paris by April 1. When NATO decided to move its command to Belgium, the generals expected Belgians to propose a site at Wavre, just outside Brussels. But the Belgian government, a reluctant host in any case, had other ideas. It suggested a less attractive spot at Chievres, 35 miles southwest of the capital, a far safer site for Bruxellois in case anyone ever drops an atom bomb on NATO's military headquarters. Understandably, SHAPE recoiled in horror, since for almost two decades its 2,600 officers and men have been happily ensconced just 25 minutes from the Champs-Elysees.

Nonetheless, Lemnitzer gamely paid an inspection visit to Chievres. Though Belgian officials wanted to helicopter him to the place, he insisted on riding the winding, potholed highway, a 1 1/2-hour trip that the Belgians insist can be speeded up by a superhighway they have in mind. The little town itself boasts 3,171 inhabitants. Only a two-minute walk from grazing cows and wheat fields, it has four cafes, none of which will ever make the pages of Michelin. Chievres' chief offerings are a 16th century Gothic chapel and a brewery.

Lemnitzer paid an unscheduled visit to another possible site only eleven miles from Brussels, but it has an unfortunate name for a military bastion--Waterloo. Should the general accept Chievres, farmers of the region will be no happier than he. One native, whose land stands to be plowed under, muttered: "I used to throw nails on the road during the war to give the Nazis flat tires. If Chape comes I'll throw some more."

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