[29] _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. [30] _Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons_, fifth series, Volume 21 (1911), pp. 241–242. [31] _Infra_, pp. 258–265. [32] For the views of a typical British imperialist on the Persian situation, _cf._, Curzon, _Persia and the Persian Question_, Volume II, Chapter XXX; a later account is that of the American, W. Morgan Shuster, _The Strangling of Persia_ (New York, 1912); _cf._, also, H. F. B. Lynch, “Railways in the Middle East,” in _Proceedings of the Central Asian Society_ (London), March 1, 1911. [33] See P. Rohrbach, _Die Bagdadbahn_, p. 18; Reventlow, _op. cit._, pp. 338–343. That Rohrbach’s frank avowal of the menace of the Bagdad Railway to India and Egypt was not without influence in Great Britain is evidenced by the fact that long quotations from _Die Bagdadbahn_ were read into the records of the House of Commons by the Earl of Ronaldshay, on March 23, 1911. _Parliamentary Debates_, fifth series, Volume 23, p. 628.