ABSTRACT
As we have seen, in the Protectorate’s last decade it was generally assumed that at some time in the near future Somaliland would merge with Somalia and an independent state would be formed, and that it might elect to continue some form of an association with Britain. An obligation to provide assistance, postindependence was recognised and generally approved. Development plans followed from this assessment and aimed to prepare the Protectorate as well as possible for this future. Mainly this meant doing everything that could be done to promote self-suffi ciency through economic development, while maintaining skeleton services.1 Development plans until the spring of 1960 assumed that efforts to address the Protectorate’s manifold defi ciencies would continue for some time after formal independence – completion in 1965 was commonly projected. The belief that signifi cant assistance would follow independence was probably the reason that while the Protectorate was always cognizant of the danger of creating permanent commitments in excess of the ability of any independent state to pay for them, it did exactly that, with greater vigour with every passing year.
