MANDATORY AND MANDATED?
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."' Sie,—May I through your columns ask the advice of literary experts on a matter of terminology which is coming forward ? By what adjective are wo to designate: (I) a State which is entrusted with the mandate of the League of Nations over a given territory; and (2) the territory which is so entrusted ? According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, one to whom a mandate is given is mandatary. This, then, would be the correct term by which to designate the trustoe State, but I do not remember seeing it so used. The same authority defines mandatory as " conveying a mandate," but it also allows the word as an equivalent of mandatary, and it seems to he used in this sense. But for (2) the object which is entrusted, I have met no accepted or acceptable word as yet. Mandated makes one shudder; mandatorial is, if possible, worse. I and some others who are seeking for a term shall be grateful for enlightenment.
-I am, Sir, &c., H. U. WEITHRECHT STANTON, D.D., Editor of Missions Overseas.
Central Board of Missions of the Church of England, 3 Bedford Square, W.C. I.
[" Mandate-Territory" is clumsy, but it covers the ground,— ED. Spectator.]
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