"MIDDLE EAST."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 48, 26 February 1941, Page 6

"MIDDLE EAST."

NOW GENERAL TERM.

SUPPLANTS "NEAR EAST."

Antlh.ritics mid even British Government Departments differ on whether the Ka«tern Mediterranean theatre of war -hould be termed the Near East or Middle East, says the "Christian Science Monitor." The Canadian Piws attempted to lenin whether or not the terms were "Iliciallv synonymous. Among the varie<l opinions was the dictum of the Ministry "f Information's Foreign Publicity Detriment that the term Near East has

almost passed out of current use'' and that the Middle East is an all-embracing designation of the eastern Mediterranean

The Canadian Press is taking the MinistrvV word for it, „„d is Middle Hast.

It took quite n strugglo to get anyone in London to be definite about it. "The I lines. ' for instance, said it was a difficult problem, but the newspaper makes n distinction. It ealls Kgypt and Palestine the Middle East. Turkey. Syria and Persia the Near East.

I lie Army, whose rorces in the area come tinder the Middle East Command, pa ri led : The Foreign Oflioe people will be able to tell you." Foreign Office sources considered the terms svnonvmoil* although one* authority' there thought there should be some distinction.

Wed like to know ourselves." said a naval spokesman. "It's a political distinction anyway and not a nautical one. Uell see how the Admiralty interprets it." 3

After a pause the spokesman came back with: "All we know m that there's a Mediterranean Fleet and there is an hast Indian Squadron which patrols the Ked boa."

The Royal Air Force bulk* everything under its Middle East command, centred at Cairo. Before the war thero were various commands, including Irao Palestine, Malta and Aden.

For tho Inst couple of years the term -Near hast "has meant nothing politically, said the Foreign Publicity Department at the Ministry of Information. lhe tendency to use Middle Fast, has been accentuated by the R.A.F. and the Army lia\ing Middle Fa&t commands and because Navy Headquarters are at Alexandria.