ATLANTIC PACT FORCES

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26353, 22 February 1951, Page 7

ATLANTIC PACT FORCES

HEADQUARTERS FOR SHAPE

(Special corretpondeni N-Z-KA.) LONDON, February 20. The French Government has given 60 acres of Presidential hunting re-, serve in the forest of Marly, 20 miles west of Paris, to be used as a permanent headquarters for General Eisenhower’s Supreme Headquarters of Allied Powers in Europe (SHAPE). Headquarters buildings » r ®.to be constructed between the two historic towns of Versailles and Saint Germam en Laye and it is expected they will be ready for occupation within three months of the time the plans are given to French Army engineers, who will let the contracts. The SHAPE planning group announced that several sites hpd been considered, but each in turn was declared unsuitable or unobtainable. Officers said it was originally hoped to build the headquarters on a portion of a Versailles stud farm owned by the racehorse owner, Mr Marcel Boussac, but Mr Boussac was unwilling t °'Hie plans call for the erection of one-storey offices and barracks covering 100,000 square feet. About 600 enlisted men and civilian employees will be housed in the area. Officers will find private accommodation in Pans, Versailles. Or nearby towns. The headquarters is five miles from the Trianon Palace Hotel in Versailles, where a six-room suite has been rented for General Eisenhower and his wife. The General eventually will move into a nearby 14-roomed villa formerly occupied by Lady Mendi. General Eisenhower and his staff will continue to work at temporary headquarters In the Hotel Astoria, Paris, until the permanent buildings are finished. The President will still be able to use Marly Forest as a hunting reserve when he entertains visaing dignitaries. The section taken over was not used for hunting because of its nearness to the highway.

Tax As Training Alternative—Hungarians exempted from the military call-up for health and other reasbns must oay a special tax under a new Government decree. Unfit men WiJ pay £8 6s a year and others £l5 15s each year until they are 36. Parents or guardians must pay the tax fro men without income.—Budapest, February 20.