256 MY SOMALI BOOK 



seems to think only of Muscat and the N.W. Frontier 

 of India. It calls for no great stretch of imagination 

 to suppose that this steady increase of modern fire- 

 arms may in the none too distant future give rise to a 

 North-east African " question," which it will not be 

 possible for us quietly to put on one side as we have 

 done that of the " Mad Mullah." Till then, however, 

 our motto will, I suppose, remain " Sufficient unto the 

 day is the evil thereof." 



Since the above was written, in 1911, there appears 

 to have been, until very recently, an improvement in 

 the situation as manifested by a decrease in the amount 

 of inter-tribal raiding among the friendly tribes, 

 which has been mainly due to the successful semi- 

 police work of the locally raised Somali Camel Corps. 

 The undertaking of such police work in the attempt 

 to restore a measure of quiet within the Protectorate 

 was doubtless unavoidable, but it was manifestly 

 inconsistent with what was understood to be the 

 intentions of Government in adopting the policy of 

 retirement on the coast towns. That the attempt 

 was found to be unavoidable may fairly be taken as 

 a measure of the failure of the policy in one direction. 



Its failure in another direction — the self-protec- 

 tion of the friendly tribes against Dervish raids — has 

 been made evident by the success of the recent big 

 raid (August, 1913) by the Mullah's forces, to which 

 public attention has been drawn by the disaster which 

 it involved to the Camel Corps and the death of a 

 British officer. It is easy to be wise after the event, 

 but could anything else have been expected of an 



