The scope of Germany's Asiatic aspirations during the war is exemplified
by an article from the pen of the learned Orientalist Professor Bernhardt
Molden.[127] Germany's aid to Turkey, contends Professor Molden, is merely
symptomatic of her policy to raise the other Asiatic peoples now crushed
beneath English and Russian domination. Thus Germany will create puissant
allies for the "Second Punic War." Germany must therefore strive to
solidify the great Central Asian _bloc_--Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan,
China. Professor Molden urges a "Pan-Asian railroad" from Constantinople
to Peking. This should be especially alluring to Afghanistan, which would
thereby become one of the great pivots of world-politics and trade. In
fine: "Germany must free Asia." As another prominent German writer,
Friedrich Delitzsch, wrote in similar vein: "To renovate the East--such is
Germany's mission."[128]