Letter: Church investment

I WONDER whether Bishop Belo of East Timor would share the Church Commissioners' view (report, 23 March) that it is acceptable for the Church of England to invest in companies such as British Aerospace, whose sale of weapons to the Indonesian government has contributed to the slaughter of so many Timorese people, just because they also manufacture commercial aeroplanes?

Aaron Kataria's spurious explanation that the Commissioners' concern is that their investments are not made in companies who are "wholly or mainly in [the defence] business" is morally indefensible. Did they not bother to read BAe's 1996 Annual Report, which stated that 60 per cent of their previous year's manufacturing was of military equipment?

JAMES SAVAGE

London SW6