 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 . 
