The Peopling of South-East Asia

Abstract

South-East Asia is a term which came into general use during the Second World War to describe the territories of the eastern Asiatic mainland forming the Indo-Chinese peninsula and the immense archipelago which includes Indonesia and the Philippines. In using the term American writers have standardized the form ‘Southeast’ and have been followed by Victor Purcell1 and E. H. G. Dobby.2 But there seems to be no valid reason for coining a new form in preference to either ‘South-East’ or ‘South East’, both of which have the sanction of long usage. The Royal Navy uses the hyphen. During the war SEAC used the unhyphenated form, but the Mountbatten Reports3 reverts to the use of the hyphen. Like all terms applied to a large area for the sake of convenience, it is open to a number of objections. Discussion of these here is unnecessary, since our use of the term is dictated solely by convenience.