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SOMALILAND PROTECTORATE 3 91

SOMALILAND PROTECTORATE.

The Somali Coast from Lahadii, west of Zeila, to Bandar Ziyada 49° E. long., is administered by a Commissioner. After 1884, when Egyptian con- trof ceased, the territory was administered by the Government of India, but was taken over by the Foreign Office on October 1, 1898, and was trans- ferred to the Colonial Office on April 1, 1905. The area is about 68,000 square miles; population about 300,000 Mohammedan, and entirely no- madic, except on the coast, where considerable towns have sprung up during the British occupation. By an arrangement with Italy in 1894 the limits of the British Protectorate were defined; but in 1897, by an arrange- ment with Abyssinia, a fresh boundary as required by that country was determined, and about 15,000 square miles were ceded to Abyssinia. An agreement for the regulation of Anglo-Italian relations in Somaliland was concluded on March 19, 1907. The chief town, Berbera, had, at the 1911 census, 30,000 inhabitants in the trading season; Zeila, 7,000; and Bulbar, 7,300. At these three ports there are British officers. There are 3 Government schools: average attendance, 1911-12, 153. Police, 191 officers and men on March 31, 1912. Convictions in 1911-12, 848. The revenue in 1911-12 was 32,572^.; the expenditure, 74,845Z., the deficiency being met by unexpended balance of previous year. The grant in aid for 1911-12, nil. Imports (1911-12), Zeyla, Berbera, Bulbar, Karam, and Heis, 266,511Z.; exports (1911-12), 240,636Z. Bullion and specie are included. The imports are chiefly rice, piece-goods, shirtings, and dates; the exports, skins and hides, ostrich feathers, gum, cattle and sheep. Tonnage entered and cleared in 1911-12, 141,851 tons, of which 111,717 tons were British. The rupee is of the same value as in India. Transport is by camels; there are no porters. In 1908 the length of telegraph line Avas 200 miles, but since the withdrawal to the coast the Protectorate maintains only 40 miles length of telegraph line from Berbera to Bulbar, and has estab- lished one radio-telegraph station at Berbera and one at Aden.

The protection of the coast towns of Berbera, Bulbar, and Zeyla is entrusted to small garrisons of Indian troops, supplemented by a native police force. In March, 1910, British posts were withdrawn from the interior, and administration is now confined to the coastal region.

Oommissioner and Commander-in-Chief, — H. A. Byatt, C.M.G.

Books of Reference.

Drake-Brockma7i (R. E.), British Somaliland. London, 1912.

Hamilton (A.), Somaliland. London, 1911.

Jennings (J. W.), With the Abyssiniaus in Somaliland. London, 1905.

MacNeill (Capt. M.), In Pursuit of the "Mad" Mullah. Loudon, 1902.

Pease (A. E.), Somaliland. 3 vols. London, 1902.

Peel(C. V. A.), Somaliland. London, 1903.

Smith (A. Donaldson), Through Unknown African Countries. London, 1897.

Swaynelu. G. C), Seventeen Trips through Somaliland. 2 Ed. London, 1900

Vaimutelli (L.), and CiterniiC), SecondaSpedizioneB6ttego. Milan, 1899.