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‘The strategic importance of the Euphrates valley railway’ [‎9] (20/204)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (22 pages). It was created in 1873. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: Printed Collections.

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9
The Treaties of Vienna having been torn up, first by
allowing a Napoleon to sit on the French Throne, then by the
wresting of Milan from Austria, it was absurd to complain if
they went a little further and rectified the frontier of France.
Well, since that great and sacred principle of public faith and
honour, resting on solemn Treaties, has been broken, what has
been the state of the world ? We all lived for many, many
years in such a state of profound peace, that the period had
come to be called the Fifty Years' Peace; and I remember, when
I was a little boy of eight years old, how my mother introduced
me to an old white-headed soldier, who had served through
the war in the Peninsula and the crowning glory of Waterloo,
I remember her saying, " This foolish little boy must needs
be a soldier. I tell him the time has gone by for fighting,
and it is of no use to be a soldier! and the veteran answered,
putting his hand on my head, "No, my little man, I don't
recommend soldiering now-a-days. Men have grown too wise
to fight; there will be no more war in the world !" He was
right as far as he was concerned, for he died before the
temple of Janus was again opened. And what have we seen
since the long Peace? Wars ceaseless in India; wars in
China, in 1842, 1857, and 1860; the Crimean War; the
Indian Mutiny; the French and Austrian War; the Spanish-
Moorish War; the American War; the Russian-Polish War;
the Mexican Revolution and War; the Brazilian War; the
Prussian, Austrian, and Danish War; the Prussian, Austrian,
and Italian AVar; and last and greatest, the Prussian-French
War. So long as the balance of power was preserved, and
public Treaties respected, we avoided these horrors, but once
the dam was removed— hella, horrida bella —nothing but wars
ensued; and I venture to think that our forefathers, whose
wise statesmanlike judgment laid down those Treaties which
gave us half a century of peace, were not the fools it has been
often the habit of inferring they were. I go further, it is my
conviction that we are only now half through the fearful
ordeal of blood. We have now succeeded in tearing open all
the wounds which a long peace had partially healed. We
liud I ranee in a state of deadly antagonism to Germany;
Austria and Hungary against Russia, with probably Germany

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The Strategic importance of the Euphrates Valley Railway , by F M L [Feldmarschallleutnant] Baron Kuhn von Kuhnenfeld, Austrian War Minister, translated by Captain Charles William Wilson. Published by Edward Stanford of 6 & 7 Charing Cross, London, 1873. Authorised translation; second edition. A note at the end of the volume states that the speech was written by von Kuhnenfeld in 1858, and the first edition published in 1869.

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1 volume (22 pages)
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The volume is bound into a larger volume entitled ‘Political Tracts’ (dimensions: 215mm x 135mm), with four other small volumes.

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English in Latin script
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‘The strategic importance of the Euphrates valley railway’ [‎9] (20/204), British Library: Printed Collections, 8026.cc.1.(2.), in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023666686.0x000015> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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