In the same period, another phenomenon of significance had begun to become evident in Somalia. This was the rapid growth in urbanization which received a new impetus when, after the Ethiopian campaigns, large numbers of Somali soldiers were discharged and settled in the Benadir towns, especially in Mogadishu. This ancient port, with its long cosmopolitan tradition, had, in the decade between 1930 and 1940, more than doubled its population, and now boasted some 60,000 inhabitants. Equally, although no trade union activity was permitted, the employment of considerable numbers of workers by S.A.I.S. and other concerns helped to promote the formation of new social and political attitudes, and these, further stimulated by western schooling, now began to be apparent in the towns and principal centres of the colony.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 313