20 [No. 97 HISTORY : SOMALILAND and forming an integral part of the Empire, shall be recognized by His Imperial Majesty as a dependency of Egypt, or of the countries placed under His Highness' hereditary rule, be ceded on any pretence whatever to a foreign Power.

This assurance was never given, and the agreement remained inoperative. The Egyptian Government, however, exercised de facto jurisdiction over the whole Somali coast till 1884, when , in consequence of the collapse of Egyptian authority in the Sudan, it was decided that the Egyptians should retire from the whole of the coast, between the Straits of Bab - el-Mandeb and Ras Hafun, on the Indian Ocean, south of Cape Guardafui. In communicating this decision to the Turkish Government, Lord Granville drew a clear distinction in political status between ( 1 ) the coast from the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb eastward as far as and including Zeila, over which Turkish sovereignty , though never formally admitted by the British Govern ment, had not been practically disputed, and (2 ) the coast between Zeila and Ras Hafun, where Turkish claims to sovereignty had been repeatedly denied by the British Government . He intimated that, if the Turkish Government was prepared, on the withdrawal of the Egyptians, to maintain its authority over Tajura and Zeila, its rule would be recognized by the British Government as far as and including Zeila ; eastward of Zeila, and especially at Berbera, which was the source of the chief supplies of Aden, the British Govern ment would take its own measures for the preservation of order and the security of British interests. As Turkey took no action beyond protesting that Berbera was unquestionably under Turkish sovereignty, troops were sent from Aden to Zeila. Between 1884 and 1886 treaties were made with the Somali tribes from Zeila eastwards, placing them under British 1 See State Papers, 1884-5 , vol . 76, pp . 674–84 . . >