Note 33 — Chapter VI · THE BAGDAD RAILWAY BECOMES AN IMPERIAL ENTERPRISE

That Germans were not unfamiliar with the spectacular history of this region is evidenced by the popularity of General von Moltke’s writings on Turkey, which were published in several large editions, apart from his collected works, between 1900 and 1911. Cf., e.g., H. K. B. (Graf von) Moltke, Briefe über Zustände und Begebenheiten in der Türkei aus den Jahren 1835 bis 1839, seventh edition, with explanatory notes by G. Hirschfeld (Berlin, 1911). Of this work H. S. Wilkinson, Professor of Military History at Oxford University, wrote in the Encyclopedia Britannica (eleventh edition), “No other book gives so deep an insight into the character of the Turkish Empire” (Volume 18, p. 678). It is interesting to note, also, that Moltke himself was a firm believer in the great military utility of all railways. For the history of the Near East cf. Jastrow, op. cit., pp. 31–81; A. R. Hall, The Ancient History of the Near East (fourth edition, London, 1919), Chapters V, VIII, IX, X, XII; W. A. and E. T. A. Wigram, The Cradle of Mankind (London, 1914). A curious sidelight on this phase of the question is the assertion of Baron von Hertling, in 1907, that Germany’s chief interest in the Bagdad Railway was scientific—geographic, geological, archæological—not military or economic! Quoted by Dawson, The Evolution of Modern Germany, p. 346.