The Nome Nugget

Tractors are Ready For Delivery on Prisoner Exchange

DETROIT (P) — The Tractors for Freedom Committee is ready to send Fidel Castro the 500 tractors he asks in exchange for 1,200 invasion prisoners as well as a team of experts to negotiate the deal. The next move is up to him.

The committee cabled the Cuban Prime Minister Thursday night that "we are prepared to move with dispatch and ship the first consignment of 100 tractors not later than two weeks from today, to be followed by additional consignments of tractors in lots of 100 until the total of 500 are delivered."

It cautioned Castro, however, that "we trust you are equally prepared to move with dispatch to release the prisoners. We remind you of our insistence that you make available to us without further delay a complete list of the 1,214 prisoners involved so that we can develop satisfactory procedures for verifying the identity of those released.

"We recommend that the International Red Cross be asked to handle the details relating to the release of the prisoners."

The proposed trade, which has been controversial, got more criticism meanwhile.

Sen. Barry Goldwater, appearing on the Jack Paar show Thursday night, said "a government has to be dealt with by a government -not a group of citizens, however well-intentioned."

The committee, formed after Castro made his trade offer May 17, said it would not send one of its more prominent members to Havana to negotiate as Castro had asked but would send a six-member technical committee of agricultural and tractor experts.

It said that if Castro approved of the offer the team of experts would arrive in Havana next Monday. It urged Castro to reply as soon as possible.