It was reported that five outstanding issues required attention and resolution before parliament could approve the union act. First, leaders of the former British Somaliland wanted to protect the contracts, which lasted until December 1960, of British military officers attached to the Somaliland Scouts. Northern authorities thought that the only way for them to honor the contracts was to keep the scouts separate from the Somali army until the end of the year. In contrast, leaders in Mogadishu wanted immediate integration of the two forces under the command of Colonel Daud Abdulle Hersi. Second, these sources re- ported that the North wanted to annex all agreements between the two Somali regions and their former colonial masters to the union act, but the South thought the union act was not the appropriate place to do so. Third, some members of the Northern leadership proposed that governments in both regions resign on June 30, but the Southern leaders suggested that the Southern government should remain as a caretaker government in consultation with the Northern authorities until July 7, when a new national government for the Somali Republic would be formed. Fourth, diplomatic sources reported that some elements of the Northern leadership proposed that the country should be divided into three administrative regions with similar population sizes, but the government in the South insisted on retaining the six regions in the trust territory and possibly dividing the North into two regions.

Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, loc. 530