Britain valued the Somaliland Protectorate mainly for Aden’s meat supply

Evidence

Britain’s interest in the Somali area stemmed from her possession of Aden which had been acquired by force in 1839 as a station on the short route to India. With its poverty in local resources, the Aden garrison was almost entirely dependent upon northern Somaliland for supplies of meat. There was also a considerable Somali community at Aden, many of whom found employment with the new rulers there. The Aden authorities and the Bombay government were thus directly concerned that orderly conditions should prevail on the Somali coast, and more especially that the feeder caravan routes from the interior, and the ports of Berbera and Zeila, should function freely. But although travellers like Burton and local officials at Aden might advocate a definite British occupation of the Somali coast, their plans fell on deaf ears in Westminster. The British government was only interested in Somaliland’s meat supply as a necessary ancillary to the garrisoning of Aden. Only if this were seriously threatened would any occupation of the Somali coast be justified. This attitude on the part of Whitehall towards the Somali coast, given different emphasis by different administrations in England, was still the guiding policy when events had driven Britain to establish a Somaliland Protectorate in 1887. This evaluation is also reflected in the character of the Anglo-Somali treaties of protection. It figures strongly in the negotiation of the 1897 treaty with Ethiopia, and it later bred a tradition of parsimony and neglect which dominated British action in her Somali Protectorate throughout most of its life. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 140 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

This decided, the Protectorate leaders assembled in London on 2 May for the conference which was to sever their colonial connexion. For once British and Somali interests seemed to coincide. The British government was now anxious to relinquish responsibility for what in relation to its size and significance had undoubtedly been one of Britain’s least rewarding possessions. All Britain sought for herself, apart from measures to protect the pension and compensation rights of British personnel, was the continuation of the lease for the BBC Middle Eastern Service relay station at Berbera. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 420 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Britain’s Somaliland involvement was purely a meat-provisioning auxiliary to Aden’s garrison — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 140; Britain’s Somali interest was solely the meat supply for Aden; British imperial strategy traded Somali protectorate treaties for trade access to Aden — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 190 (+2 more)

Related

• Britain’s Somaliland involvement was purely a meat-provisioning auxiliary to Aden’s garrison (similarity 0.96)
• Britain’s Somali interest was solely the meat supply for Aden (similarity 0.95)
• British goodwill cheaply surrendered its Somaliland Protectorate in 1960. (similarity 0.89)
• British imperial strategy traded Somali protectorate treaties for trade access to Aden (similarity 0.88)
• Britain in 1897 nearly abandoned its Somaliland protectorate (similarity 0.86)
• Britain’s Somaliland commitments ballooned far beyond its minimal original aims (similarity 0.85)
• Britain nearly abandoned its Somaliland Protectorate over cost concerns. (similarity 0.85)
• Britain relinquished the Protectorate almost unconditionally (similarity 0.84)
• Britain’s Somaliland empire grew as an unintended consequence of the Dervish war (similarity 0.82)
• Frontier demarcation with Ethiopia first revealed Britain’s withdrawal of protection (similarity 0.81)
• Britain obtained Ethiopian recognition of the Protectorate while ceding no Somali territory to Ethiopia (similarity 0.81)
• Britain ceded 67,000 square miles of the Haud to Ethiopia in 1897 (similarity 0.80)
• British protectorate treaties covered specific northern Somali clans but not the Dulbahante. (similarity 0.79)
• Britain surrendered Haud grazing lands to Ethiopia without consulting Somali subjects (similarity 0.78)
• Britain’s 1897 withdrawal knowingly doomed the Somali clans’ independence. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Britain’s Somali interest was solely the meat supply for Aden #corroborates (0.95)
• Britain’s Somaliland involvement was purely a meat-provisioning auxiliary to Aden’s garrison #corroborates (0.90) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 140
• British goodwill cheaply surrendered its Somaliland Protectorate in 1960. #expands (0.50) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 420
• Britain’s Somaliland commitments ballooned far beyond its minimal original aims #complicates (0.45) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 249
• British imperial strategy traded Somali protectorate treaties for trade access to Aden #complicates (0.40) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 190