'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎11] (18/714)

I'RE FACE
XI
can truly say that single lines in this book have sometimes cost me
hours of work and pages of correspondence.
Among the special features which I have incorporated, the
following may be mentioned. At the end of such chapters as
relate to a particular province or part ot the country, 1 have com
piled a list of the principal routes in the neighbourhood that have
been followed and described by previous writers. In a country
without railways or a Bradshaw, a new comer, if he diverge from
the beaten track, is likely to be quite unconscious whether his
route has been traversed before, or whether he is upon virgin
ground. If the former, I present him with the means of compari
son ; if the latter, I acquaint him with the responsibilities of dis
covery. I had originally hoped to append to my second volume a
bibliography of Persian Geography and I ravel 5 but to such
dimensions has my list ot titles swollen that 1 must iesei\e it foi
a separate publication. Instead I have affixed to the discussion of
each locality or subject as complete a catalogue as my reading-
has furnished, of the works relating thereto in Euiopean tongues.
Many tables, pedigrees, and catalogues that have never previously
been published are also included in the text.
For the political opinions expressed therein I desire to claim
the sole responsibility. They have not been derived from, and are
very likely not shared in their entirety by, the British Legation at
Teheran. Still less have they been borrowed from any of the
friends whose services I shall presently acknowledge. If they are
ever found to be unpalatable to the admirers of Persia, they have
certainly not been arrived at in any spirit of unfriendliness to that
nation whose best interests I desire to serve, nor are they uttered
without a profound conviction in every instance that the\ aie true.
The proportion of the whole truth that ought to be told m the
domain of statecraft is a question open to dispute. But at least
let me side with those who abhor the diplomatic lie. linally, let
me add that the whole of these two volumes, with the exception of
the chapter on Persepolis, was already in print when I became
officially connected with the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. ; and that the views