page_title: Rhodesian mission in Lisbon
section_title: Rhodesian disillusionment; Britain adopts delaying tactics
hierarchical_section_title: Rhodesian mission in Lisbon / Early negotiations / Rhodesian disillusionment; Britain adopts delaying tactics
caption_attribution_description: English: bromide print
context_page_description: The Rhodesian mission in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, operated from September 1965 to May 1975. It was a diplomatic mission representing 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.
context_section_description: Independence talks between Britain and Rhodesia continued for a fortnight without major reference to the Reedman appointment, with Britain more concerned with discussing a possible Rhodesian unilateral declaration of independence (UDI). Smith delivered an openly defiant speech to his parliament on 30 June, attacking Britain for its handling of the Commonwealth's newer members, which he said were unduly influencing British policy in Africa. Britain was desperate to avoid the international humiliation that would accompany the organisation's break-up, he claimed, and was therefore attempting to hold it together by appeasing the less prominent members. While making clear his disdain, the Prime Minister pledged to go on with negotiations, saying that he did not believe Britain truly endorsed its professed line.
  In dealing with the immovable Smith, Wilson's ministers adopted a programme of deliberate frustration and delay: Britain would interminably stonewall the Rhodesian Prime Minister, maintaining the facade of continued negotiation by very occasionally repeating their stance, in the hope that either Smith would back down, or his Cabinet would eventually lose faith in his negotiating prowess and replace him with somebody more malleable. Wood writes that Wilson, Bottomley and their Labour contemporaries were "distracted by their own political agendas", and did not understand the extent of Rhodesia's considerable disillusionment with Britain by this time. Effectively "kicked ... out of the Commonwealth", as Huggins later commented, a fortress mentality was developing in Salisbury, propelling it towards unilateral action. Wood concludes that Britain's maintenance of this stonewalling tactic was misjudged, and only exacerbated the Rhodesian government's feeling of alienation.
  In the British House of Lords on 26 July, Brockway pressed Lord Taylor, the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, on Rhodesia's claims, arguing that failure to block the Lisbon appointment would amount to conceding de facto recognition to Rhodesia as an independent state. Taylor's response was that Britain remained committed to upholding its ultimate purview over Rhodesian overseas relations. Brockway then asked how Rhodesia had attained its independent office in Pretoria; surely, he said, this provided "a precedent which was rather dangerous?" Taylor replied that Pretoria and Salisbury had exchanged High Commissioners before South Africa left the Commonwealth in 1961, and that Britain had granted Rhodesia special dispensation to retain the Pretoria mission thereafter. He stressed that in Britain's eyes this was no precedent for Lisbon.
caption: British Prime Minister Harold Wilson believed he could bring Ian Smith to heel by stonewalling him.
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