WHAT exactly is John Moore, President of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution, trying to tell us (Letters, November 22 )?

He states:

1 That he loves trees

2 That he has bought 20 trees for each of his grandchildren at birth

3 That 30 years ago he carried out a one-man campaign to save a 500-year-old oak tree in Norfolk.

With these sentiments, one might have thought that he would have supported the call for the protection of the two beautiful copper beech trees at Connaught Court, which were felled with such haste, and subsequently declared to be perfectly healthy.

Did he inspect these trees either before or after the felling? And does he know that other trees there await the same fate? And does his concern for trees have any bearing on his caring for older people, as his letter implies?

Nancy Gilderdale,

Fulford Park, York.

Updated: 10:01 Wednesday, December 01, 2004