Gulf club
Sir: The answer to Mr Moore's query (Diary, 15 August) lies in Iran/Iraq chauvi- nistic rivalry some 30 years ago when I lived in Basrah, Iraq.
It was promulgated (I know not by whom) that the Gulf should, henceforth, be known as the Arabian Gulf; but this the Iranians denied and insisted that it was the Persian Gulf; the result was chaos as mail was not handled by either contender if it were considered to be addressed to the 'wrong' sort of Gulf!
English language newspapers in Iraq and the western Gulf States continued with 'Arabian' and the Iranian press with 'Per- sian' — for the rest, we all sedulously avoided any adjectival definition of the Gulf and 'pursued the even tenor of our ways', regardless.
James Menhinick
69 North Salts, Rye, Sussex
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