ABSTRACT
‘Stagnation’ being the accepted interwar policy for Somaliland, and the Protectorate being assigned a very low strategic priority, the resources allocated to any sort of development were severely constrained. By 1939, the development of Somaliland was almost uniquely stunted in comparison with other British dependencies. Such development as occurred was essentially reduced to desperate attempts by members of the Protectorate Administration to locate some local source of funding while providing such social services as were possible and which looked likely either to make money or reduce expenditure. The Administration strove mightily to make bricks without straw, even though as a Colonial Service Officer once joked, in Somaliland there generally was not much mud either.
