WHILE it would be easy to dismiss the views expressed by Mandep Sohal Rice (Your Letters, June 3) as eccentric, I fear such views are sincerely held.

To describe the ringing of the Great Malvern Priory church bells as "religious imperialism" is arrant nonsense. This country has a laudable record when it comes to tolerance and helping others, some might say if anything we are too accommodating at times.

Church bells, like the language of Shakespeare or the music of Elgar, are part of this country's heritage.

History teaches us to have a healthy suspicion of whose who claim to wish to prohibit something in the name of the majority. Those who seek to silence church bells are but a step away from wishing to ban and burn books.

For this letter to come from a Malvern resident makes it all the more disturbing.

The people who live in the shadow of the Malverns are invariably tolerant and generous of spirit. The good people of Malvern and its environs have manifested their internationalist sympathies in an extraordinary amount of outreach through groups such as Amnesty International, CND, the English Speaking Union and the World Development Movement. I salute their endeavours.

I leave the final words to a toast made by King William IV (1830-1837): "To our country, and may those that dislike it leave it."

Mark T Jones, Southend Road, East Ham, London.