ABSTRACT
On 13 August 1921, Sir Percy Cox, Britain's high commissioner in Iraq, requested the authority of Winston Churchill, the colonial secretary, that the name Iraq be used in official designations instead of Mesopotamia. On the advice of Major Hubert Young, an official of the Middle East Department of the Colonial Office, Churchill approved Cox's request.1 The name Mesopotamia soon disappeared from British official use. From early 1922 until June 1926, the Colonial Office and the Foreign Office argued whether Iraq should be spelled Irak' or 'Iraq' in official writing. The obstinacy of officials in both departments – especially Sir Eyre Crowe, the permanent under-secretary for foreign affairs, and Major Young of the Colonial Office – kept this controversy alive for five years.
