Naming the Gulf
Sir: I must correct you (Diary, 15 August). The Times has not recently banished the name of the Persian Gulf under Arab pressure. Quite the reverse. Under Amer- ican influence on British television screens during the present crisis, some correspon- dents have begun to refer to the place by its old English name once more.
Although I am myself not a Persian (but an Iranian Kurd), I hope the trend will prosper, and I hope the Arabs are now mature enough to put the chauvinism of the late Colonel Nasser, who started the controversy by calling the waterway the Arabian Gulf, behind them. A people who re-name places after themselves betray a lack of confidence in their own worth. In this particular case, the correction might also help to subdue the angry old rival across the water.
For Persians, too, I have a piece of advice: do not be angry over a mere name. You have much bigger problems. Your number one problem will be seven years old on 22 September, number two will be 85 two days later, and number three will be about 80 million by the turn of the century. Hazhir Teimourian
Go the Foreign Editor, The Times, London El
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