Those Americans!

The most surprised men in the world this week were the seven members of the UNO committee to choose a site for the world capital. After 29 days of being wined, dined, high-pressured and deluged with mail by ambitious mayors and governors, they finally announced their choice -- and discovered that the chosen community was aghast.

The committee wanted UNO to live just where a big chunk of New York City's wealthier commuters already live --in 42 square miles of southwestern Connecticut and New York's suburban Westchester County. Yugoslavia's Dr. Stoyan Gavrilovic pointed out the area's ad vantages. It was within easy commuting distance of Manhattan, where UNO dele gates would meet until the world capital was finished. It was close to railroads, the famed Merritt Parkway, the Westchester County Airport. The country was beautiful -- green, rolling, dotted with fine houses, clubs, old towns.

Glowing with an enthusiasm which some 5,000 residents had discovered long before him, Dr. Gavrilovic described what was going to happen to the area. It would be a small nation in itself. Big buildings would rise. There would be hotels, restaurants, shops, a railroad station. Thousands of tourists would flock to visit it.

But people who live in the 42 square miles shuddered at the mere thought.

One Drink or the Bottle? County officials moaned that millions in taxes would be cut off forever. Said one: "It's like asking a man to have a drink and watching him take the bottle. We thought UNO wanted about 300 acres." Cried J. David Finger, operator of a flying school at Westchester Airport: "I got chased out of Floyd Bennett Field when the Navy took over. I got chased out of Idlewild when LaGuardia wanted it. If I get chased out of here I swear I'll go to Mexico." A dubious housewife, who guessed UNO wouldn't want her 100-year-old house, asked: "If I stay here could I keep on being an American citizen?"

The uproar failed to disturb the caretaker at Westchester County's exclusive Blind Brook Country Club. "Nothing will happen to this club," he predicted. "The members will be inviting those UNO fellows over to play golf and everything will be all right."

Capital or Fair? Residents of towns around the area couldn't quite decide what to think about being neighbors with UNO. Snapped the Greenwich, Conn, assessor: "We're going to be like living in the middle of the World's Fair." One Nick Trerotola, a garage owner, decided, somberly: "It may change my whole career." A Republican politician named Harry J. Hunter looked at it from UNO's point of view. "They'll have to pay too much money . . . Westchester is the wealthiest county in the world. They're not being economic."

More than slightly baffled, the UNO committee set off for London to report their decision to the delegates of all nations. Their departure passed unnoticed by the citizens of Connecticut-Westchester, who were too busy arguing, holding impromptu town meetings in their homes (see cut) and petitioning Congress, which must agree to give up sovereignty over the area before UNO can have it.

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