Re: [FT-FB]Islamic Federation Ship

G'day,

 >No one refers to the People's Republic
 >of China the ZRG even though it would
 >transliterate as Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo.
 >
 >(well, Sun Microsystems does
 >abbreviate "Chinese" as "zh"...no one
 >else, though).

While not military, I've seen a fair few people from various countries
keep 
the initials of the untranslated form of their country or institution.
OK 
this is in science and sport mind you and the group who did it the most 
consistently are people from the countries which used to make up the
Soviet 
Union. It may well be their alphabet is similar enough to ours (letter 
shape wise) that changing the letters is an uncalled for expense.

Cheers

Beth

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Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
HOBART
TASMANIA 7001
AUSTRALIA
Phone (03) 6232 5018 International +61 3 6232 5018
Fax 03 6232 5053 International +61 3 6232 5053