Note 29 — Chapter VIII · GREAT BRITAIN BLOCKS THE WAY

Infra, pp. 239–244; Parliamentary Debates, House of Lords, fifth series, Volume 7 (1911), pp. 583–587, 589. It is interesting to contrast this opinion of a German trans-Mesopotamian railway with that held by the same man when it was proposed that British capitalists should construct such a line. Writing in 1892, Lord Curzon had this to say regarding the project: “Its superficial attractions judiciously dressed up in a garb of patriotism, were such as to allure many minds; and I confess to having felt, without ever having succumbed to, the fascination. Closer study, however, and a visit to Syria and Mesopotamia have convinced me both that the project is unsound, and that it does not, for the present, at any rate, lie within the domain of practical politics.” Lord Curzon believed that a Mesopotamian railway would be practically valueless for military purposes: “The temperature of these sandy wastes is excessively torrid and trying during the summer months and I decline to believe that during half the year any general in the world would consent to pack his soldiers into third class carriages for conveyance across those terrible thousand miles, at least if he anticipated using them in any other capacity than as hospital inmates at the end.” Persia and the Persian Question, Volume I, pp. 633–635.