Vw%/ wYIe titgai Iattj Weather cloudy and Colder VOL LIV No. 5" ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 19, 1944 PRICE FIVE CENTS Committee Acts To Kill Labor Draft Bill - AN) Reds Strike Germans West Of Leningrad Old Nazi Defense Lines Are Shattered in Two Northern Offensives By JAMES M. LONG Associated Press Correspondent LONDON, Jan. 18.-Lashing out in two new northern offensives the Red Army has shattered long-standing German defense lines west and south of Leningrad and is advancing in the areas south of Oranienbaum and north of Novgorod, Moscow an- nounced tonight. Russians Are Advancing The two offensives, apparently aimed at clearing the Germans from lines which curl around Leningrad within artillery range of Russia's se- cond largest city, were announced exactly a year after the siege of the city was broken. Oranienbaum, about 20 miles west of Leningrad on the Baltic shore south of the island naval base of Kronstadt, has been in Russian hands throughout the siege of Len- ingrad. Although surrounded by Germans on the east, west and south, Oranienbaum and other towns to the east have been a bridgehead for Kronstadt. Reds Develop Offensive Russian troops "broke through strongly fortified enemy defense lines constructed over a long period. They are successfully developing their offensive and advancing," said the Moscow communique, recorded by the Soviet Monitor from a broad- cast, North of Novgorod, on the Volkhov River front, the second Soviet drive "broke through strongly fortified de- fenses of the Gerimans" and /Red troops are "successfullly developing their offensive," the bulletin said. Soviets Accept British Denial LONDON, Jan. 18.-(P)-Moscow gave full acknowledgment tonight to Britain's repudiation of peace talks with Germany but at the same time cited a story in a British Sunday newspaper as a basis for rumors that the Nazis actually were seeking a peace. Pravda, official Communist Party paper, published yesterday, a "rumor from Cairo" that two British person- alities had discussed a separate peace with German Foreign Minister Joa- chim von Ribbentrop somewhere on the Iberian Peninsula. The British Foreign Office prompt- ly : enied it and today called the denial officially to the attention of the Soviet Government. Tass, official Soviet news agency, broadcast the British denial over the Moscow radio tonight and transmit- ted it to Russian papers. World News In Brief... They Are Expendable, rT:::::: x},., } C .. PFC. THOMAS J. RADDINGTON r. of Milton, Mass. and PFC. JOHN Ja PASTON of Republic, Pa, have marked the grave of their buddy who was killed in action at "Suicide Point," Rendova Island with his steel helmet, rocks, and a cross made of shell eases Their fallen comrade, with whom they journed thousands of miles into the Southwest Pacific, gave his life fighting so that liberty might be preserved in the country he called home " Yet refusalrf our representatives > : :::in Congress to pass a federal sol- dier voterbill threatens the lib- ..' . .: