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‘The strategic importance of the Euphrates valley railway’ [‎41] (52/204)

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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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41
900 miles, and therefore the most valuable to us as a means
of conveyance of troops, &c., to India ; but the exact line best
to follow can only be properly decided by sending a
competent Committee to the spot. The general outline is all
I attempt now to urge. There is a party who want the line
to be made from Scutari on the Black Sea, but this would be
a distance of 1,500 miles, and would have this serious
disadvantage for us, viz., that if the terminus were at Scutari,
or at some point along the coast ot the Black Sea, we
should (in the event of war between Turkey, England, and
Russia), have our railway and means of communication
with India at the mercy of the enemy; and even supposing
the terminus at Scutari could be protected from the Russian
navy, still a land operation might enable the Russian to cut
our line of communication between Scutari and Bussorah;
whereas, were the line run from the Orontes or Alexandretta
along the south bank of the Euphrates, the whole width
of Asia Minor would be interposed between our line of
communication and the enemy. Not only ought we to
urge the completion of the Euphrates Railway by every
means in our power, but we ought to do all we can to
complete our Indian railways, so as to connect our advanced
north-western frontier with the country in rear. A\ e ought
to come to an arrangement with our ally the Khan of
Khelat, and occupy the position of Quettah to the north of
the Bolan Pass, eight marches from Quettah, and connect
Dadur on the south of it with the railway system of Sukkur,
on the Indus. If Russia should attempt any advance on
Balkh or Herat, we should immediately occupy Candahar
with a military force, and thus command the routes vid
Cabul and Ghuznee.
And now that we have formed an alliance with Shere Ali
of Afghanistan, and hold ourselves morally responsible lor his
good behaviour, we should insist on having a Commissioner
stationed at Herat, and an agent at Balkh; and it he would
consent, a military station at Candahar, which is equidistant
from Herat, or Balkh.
The reasons we should insist on this are obvious. e
will presume that complications have arisen in Europe, that

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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’ [‎41] (52/204), British Library: Printed Collections, 8026.cc.1.(2.), in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023666686.0x000035> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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