Rhodesian mission in Lisbon

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The Rhodesian mission in Lisbon (Portuguese: Missão da Rodésia em Lisboa), the capital of Portugal, operated from September 1965 to May 1975. It was a diplomatic mission representing Rhodesia (or Southern Rhodesia), initially as a self-governing colony of Britain and, after the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in November 1965, as 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. Whitehall 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".^[1] 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."^[1] 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.