Rhodesia (or Southern Rhodesia) had a diplomatic mission in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, from September 1965 to May 1975. During this time, Rhodesia was initially as a self-governing colony of Britain and, after the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in November 1965, an unrecognised state. Rhodesia informed Britain of its intent to open a Lisbon mission headed by an accredited representative, independent from the British Embassy in the city, in June 1965. The Government of the United Kingdom refused to endorse the idea but Rhodesia continued nonetheless, and later that month appointed Harry Reedman to head the mission. The British government attempted unsuccessfully to block this unilateral act—Rhodesia's first—for some months afterwards.
The affair came amid the larger dispute between Whitehall and Salisbury regarding the terms under which Rhodesia could be granted sovereign independence. Rhodesia's mostly white government insisted that statehood should come under the constitution introduced with Britain's approval in 1961, while Whitehall insisted that a set timetable for the introduction of black majority rule would have to be in place before the country could be fully independent. The Rhodesian government's stance on this matter caused it to become isolated within the Commonwealth, which from 1964 excluded it from most of its internal bodies, while the Rhodesian military became unofficially embargoed by its established British and American suppliers.
Rhodesia had run itself as a self-governing colony since 1923, but ultimate responsibility for foreign affairs remained with Britain. Rhodesia's staunch opposition to immediate black rule and its disillusionment regarding Britain propelled it towards Portugal, which governed Angola and Mozambique, territories respectively to the west and east of Rhodesia. In their attempt to prove that an independent Lisbon mission was legal, the Rhodesians presented an argument based on British legislation conferring on the colonial government the right to appoint its own "diplomatic agents, or consular or trade representatives, in countries which are willing to receive them". The British countered that ultimate purview over Rhodesian foreign affairs still lay with Whitehall. They proposed that Reedman be integrated into the British Embassy in Lisbon as a Rhodesian consul, but Rhodesia refused to accept a lesser post for Reedman than those enjoyed by the independent Rhodesian representatives in South Africa and Mozambique.
Following months of abortive Anglo-Rhodesian talks and unsuccessful attempts by Britain to deter Portugal diplomatically, Reedman travelled to Lisbon in September 1965 to take up his post at the head of an independent Rhodesian mission. The Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which insisted it was neutral regarding Rhodesia, outraged Whitehall by accepting Reedman's letter of accreditation—though Lisbon was careful to avoid provoking Britain, omitting the word "diplomatic" from the titles given to both Reedman and his mission. The Rhodesians still regarded themselves as victorious, saying they had set out to gain an independent diplomatic representative in Lisbon, and now had one. The historian J R T Wood later called this "Rhodesia's first independent and indeed unilateral act—the veritable straw in the wind." On 11 November 1965, less than two months after Reedman's investiture, Rhodesia unilaterally declared its independence from Britain. The mission in Lisbon operated until 1975, when it was closed following the Carnation Revolution in Portugal the previous year.
Background
Responsible government, Federation and the Wind of Change
Having been governed and developed by the British South Africa Company since the 1890s, Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing colony within the British Empire in 1923, when it was granted responsible government by Whitehall. The Southern Rhodesian capital, Salisbury, was henceforth empowered to run its own affairs in almost all matters, including defence. Foreign affairs was one of the few areas reserved by the British government. As the Empire's lone self-governing colony, Southern Rhodesia was considered a sui generis case, almost on a par with a dominion. Starting in 1932, Imperial Conferences included the Southern Rhodesian Prime Minister alongside those from the dominions, a unique situation which continued after Imperial Conferences were superseded by Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conferences in 1944.
As most of the Southern Rhodesian politicians saw it, they were as good as independent; if full autonomy were granted in the form of dominionship, the only practical difference would be a rise in expenses for foreign representation, as Salisbury would have to maintain its own embassies abroad. Believing full dominion status to be effectively symbolic and "there for the asking", Prime Minister Godfrey Huggins (in office from 1933 to 1953) regarded independence as a non-issue. He twice refused British overtures hinting at dominion status, and instead pursued an initially semi-independent Federation with the directly administered British colonies of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
Mandated by the results of the 1953 referendum, Federation began later that year with Southern Rhodesia, the most developed of the three territories, at its head. Salisbury doubled as Federal capital. The Federation was granted several privileges by Britain during its earlier years; for example, a 1957 British Act of Parliament empowered it to appoint its own "diplomatic agents, or consular or trade representatives, in countries which are willing to receive them" so long as it informed Britain when it was doing so. In 1950, Southern Rhodesia established a High Commission in Pretoria, in the then Union of South Africa, after the Union had established one in Salisbury; after South Africa became a republic and left the Commonwealth in 1961, these became known as "Diplomatic Missions", each headed by an "Accredited Diplomatic Representative".Diplomacy with a Difference: The Commonwealth Office of High Commissioner, 1880-2006, Lorna Lloyd, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2007, page 240 An independent office representing the Federation was also set up in Lourenço Marques, the capital of Portuguese Mozambique, while further afield, Federal officials were set up within the British embassies in Japan, West Germany, and the United States.
The Federation ultimately failed because of the shifting international attitudes and rising black nationalist ambitions of the late 1950s and early 1960s, often collectively called the Wind of Change.; The idea of "no independence before majority rule" gained considerable ground in British political circles as the UK, France and Belgium vastly accelerated their withdrawal from the continent.; Amid a flurry of bloody civil wars, military coups and other disasters, most of the new African countries became autocratic one-party states within a few years. Already wary of black nationalism on racial grounds, Salisbury became increasingly antipathetic towards it as a result of these developments, particularly when the brutal Congo Crisis caused thousands of Congolese whites to become refugees in Northern and Southern Rhodesia.; In 1962, with the Federation in its constitutional death throes amid Nyasaland's clamours for secession and immediate black rule, Federal Prime Minister Roy Welensky was horrified and outraged to be told by Britain's Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, Duncan Sandys, that "we British have lost the will to govern."; "But we haven't," retorted Julian Greenfield, Welensky's law minister.
Federal dissolution; Salisbury pushes for independence
The Southern Rhodesians presumed that in the event of Federal dissolution, they would be first in line for independence, and would receive it without major adjustments to their 1961 constitution. Indeed, intergovernmental correspondence during early 1963 did much to confirm Salisbury's belief that this was the case. While Federal break-up talks progressed, Sandys issued a letter of intent in which he said that powers conferred on the Federal government by British legislation would transfer to Southern Rhodesia at the end of Federation. It was agreed that Salisbury would keep the Federal overseas missions in Pretoria and Lourenço Marques, as well as the British Embassy desks in Bonn, Tokyo and Washington. Arrangements for Federal dissolution concluded in mid-1963, and the Federation formally ended on 31 December that year. Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland became independent during 1964, respectively renamed Zambia and Malawi, under black majority governments. Southern Rhodesia was denied the same on the grounds that whites held too dominant a position, prompting indignation and fury from the governing Rhodesian Front (RF) and its supporters. Prime Minister Winston Field's failure to secure independence from Britain during early 1964 led to his forced resignation and replacement by his deputy, Ian Smith, in April that year.;
Two months into his premiership, Smith was deeply offended when Whitehall informed him that, for the first time since 1932, Southern Rhodesia would not be represented at the year's Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference as the decision had been taken to only include fully independent states in future. The quarrel over the terms for independence caused the Southern Rhodesian military's traditional British and American suppliers to impose an informal embargo, and motivated Britain to cut off financial aid to Salisbury around the same time. The United States promptly followed suit. Political violence between the rival black nationalist movements in Rhodesia intensified during mid-1964,; leading to jail terms or preventive restriction for several prominent nationalists, and concurrent bans for their respective parties. When Northern Rhodesia became Zambia in October 1964, Southern Rhodesia dropped "Southern" from its name, and initiated legislation to this effect, but Britain refused assent, saying that the colony could not legally rename itself. Salisbury continued using the shortened name anyway.
The Rhodesian government was ardently anti-communist, and opposed immediate black rule, which Smith said would cause "the destruction of our country", pointing to ongoing events such as the Congo Crisis as evidence. Parliament remained mostly white, but Salisbury contended it had close to unanimous support from all races in pursuing independence under the 1961 constitution, citing various tests of opinion it conducted in late 1964. The Prime Minister stood obdurately against any constitutional change he believed was too radical, regarding this as a matter of national and regional security. According to his memoirs, he worked to prevent a "mad rush into one man, one vote with all the resultant corruption, nepotism, chaos and economic disaster which we had witnessed in all the countries around us." The Labour Cabinet of British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, which replaced the previous Conservative administration in October 1964, did not give credence to the Rhodesian tests of opinion, and insisted on majority rule as a condition for independence.; The Commonwealth repeatedly urged Britain to intervene directly should Rhodesian defiance continue, while British liberals worried that if left unchecked Salisbury might drift towards South African-style apartheid.
Britain, Portugal and Rhodesia