Esc key not Meta key in electric buffer

[Alan]

Perhaps someone can explain the observation that the Esc key on my
Dell laptop does not seem to function as the Meta key in

GNU Emacs 23.2.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600) of 2010-05-08 on G41R2F1

when in a buffer produced by the command

electric-buffer-list

In "ebuff-menu.el" I find the following:

    (define-key map "\e>" 'end-of-buffer)
    (define-key map "\e<" 'beginning-of-buffer)

By using instead C-[

(Control, Left bracket)

I can get "describe-key" to work with C-[ > while in the electric
buffer and it starts out saying

-----------------------------------------------------------------

M-> runs the command end-of-buffer, which is an interactive compiled
Lisp function in `simple.el'.

It is bound to M->, <C-end>, <menu-bar> <edit> <goto> <end-of-buf>.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

In a buffer that isn't an electric buffer, "describe-key-briefly"
produces the following (taken from the *Messages* buffer) for the key
combination Esc->

M-> (translated from <escape> >) runs the command end-of-buffer

In the electric buffer, "describe-key-briefly" for Esc-> produces the
following (taken from the *Messages* buffer):

<escape> > is undefined

In the electic buffer, "describe-key-briefly" for C-[ > produces the
following (taken from the *Messages* buffer):

M-> runs the command end-of-buffer