Note 14 — Chapter VIII · GREAT BRITAIN BLOCKS THE WAY

Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, Volume 120, pp. 1360–1361; Volume 126, p. 108. The opinions of Mr. Gibson Bowles were not cordially received by The Scotsman, which said, April 9, 1903, “Mr. Gibson Bowles carried the House in imagination to the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris. Germany is there seeking by means of a railway to supersede our trade, and to serve herself heir to the wealth and empire of ancient Babylon and Assyria. The member for King’s Lynn was, as usual, not very well posted up on his facts. On this occasion he was so entirely wrong-headed that no one on the opposition bench would agree with him.... The outstanding moral of the debate was, indeed, that the honorable member for King’s Lynn was much in want of a holiday.”