Shultz Carries Family Photo for Dissident

Secretary of State George P. Shultz said Saturday he hoped to personally deliver to Vladimir Slepak a photograph of the Soviet dissident’s grandchildren, who are living in the United States but he has never seen.

Shultz said he met in Washington with Slepak’s two sons in “moving, poignant, human meetings” and agreed to carry to Moscow a picture of his grandchildren.

“I certainly hope I can deliver it personally,” he said.

Shultz told reporters en route to talks in Moscow that begin Monday that he was not aware of a report that Slepak had been placed under arrest by Soviet agents today and would not be able to attend a Jewish seder Monday at the U.S. Embassy.

Slepak’s son, Alexander, said his father was beaten and placed under house arrest today when he went to central Moscow to continue his protest to be allowed to leave the Soviet Union.

The younger Slepak has been fasting outside the Capitol in Washington to dramatize his parents’ plight.

He has said he plans to fast for 17 days--one day for each year his parents have been denied exit visas--and that his father was also fasting in Moscow.