But in the end a compromise was reached by which, while abandoning her claim to some 67,000 square miles of land in the Haud, Britain was able to retain Hargeisa and part of the hinterland within her Protectorate. This represented a considerable concession to the Ethiopian claims which, though not in 1897 supported by any firm Ethiopian occupation on Somali soil beyond Jigjiga, could not be challenged without the use of force, a course which Rodd rightly understood his government would not countenance.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 187