 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 . 
