PEACE campaigners have branded the removal of their wreath from the town centre's war memorial as "obscene".

Members for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) joined the hundreds who flocked to Victoria Square recently to lay a white flowered wreath as part of the Armistice Day memorial service.

The white wreath, which has a prominent CND sign on it, has often met with protest.

In past years vandals have scattered the imitation white chrysanthemums in the precinct and one ex-soldier sprayed the white flowers red because he said they were an insult to fallen war heroes.

One year there were jeers when CND campaigner Bertie Lewis laid the wreath at the Remembrance Day service.

At the time he said: " I don't know why anyone would get so violent against something which is against weapons of mass murder."

This year, while traditional wreath have remained at the memorial in the days after the remembrance service the white wreath has again vanished.

"It is sacrilege," said Mr Lewis, aged 81, of Farnworth. "Whoever has removed it should have the courage of his convictions and make himself known.

"He is a coward not to proclaim his intentions. By laying the wreath I am standing up for what I believe in -- anti nuclear weapons to prevent the future massacre of people. Nuclear weapons should not be around, they put us all in peril. It says on the war memorial 'We should strive for peace lest we forget'. "

Mr Lewis, a war veteran who was born in Chicago pointed out that Prince Charles laid a wreath of mainly white flowers on the cenotaph in London. He added: "Removing the wreath was an obscene thing." PEACE campaigners have branded the removal of their wreath from the town centre's war memorial as "obscene".

Members for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) joined the hundreds who flocked to Victoria Square recently to lay a white flowered wreath as part of the Armistice Day memorial service.

The wreath, which has a prominent CND sign on it, has often met with protest.

In past years vandals have scattered the imitation white chrysanthemums in the precinct and one ex-soldier sprayed the white flowers red because he said they were an insult to fallen war heroes.

One year there were jeers when CND campaigner Bertie Lewis laid the wreath at the Remembrance Day service.

At the time he said: " I don't know why anyone would get so violent against something which is against weapons of mass murder."

This year, while traditional wreath have remained at the memorial in the days after the remembrance service the white wreath has again vanished.

"It is sacrilege," said Mr Lewis, aged 81, of Farnworth. "Whoever has removed it should have the courage of his convictions and make himself known.

"He is a coward not to proclaim his intentions. By laying the wreath I am standing up for what I believe in -- anti nuclear weapons to prevent the future massacre of people. Nuclear weapons should not be around, they put us all in peril. It says on the war memorial 'We should strive for peace lest we forget'. "

Mr Lewis, a war veteran who was born in Chicago pointed out that Prince Charles laid a wreath of mainly white flowers on the cenotaph in London. He added: "Removing the wreath was an obscene thing."