Possible Swap for Daniloff Is Ruled Out

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, voicing his outrage at Soviet “hostage taking,” ruled out today the possibility of any trade to get American journalist Nicholas Daniloff freed from a Soviet prison.

Shultz, speaking at the 350th anniversary of Harvard University, departed from his prepared text to say, “I know I have come to the right place to voice a message of outrage at the detention of Nick Daniloff, Harvard Class of 1956.

“The cynical arrest of an innocent American journalist reminds us what we already know,” he said. “Our traditions of free inquiry and openness are spurned by the Soviets, showing the dark side of a society prepared to resort to hostage taking as an instrument of policy.”

“Let there be no talk of a trade for Daniloff. We and Nick himself have ruled that out,” he said.

Shultz, interrupted by a burst of applause, continued, “The Soviet leadership must find the wisdom to settle this case quickly in accordance with the dictates of simple human decency and of civilized national behavior.”

The statement by Shultz was the first high-level comment by the Administration on the Daniloff case, and one of the toughest.

In the past, the State Department and White House spokesmen had appeared to consider the possibility of a trade of Daniloff for accused Soviet spy Gennady F. Zakharov, now being held without bail in New York.

But Shultz flatly ruled out a trade and suggested that the case will have to be settled quickly, with Daniloff given his freedom, or relations between the two countries will suffer.