In what year did Northern Rhodesia become an independent state ?
In the absence of a " Northern " Rhodesia , the colonial government in Salisbury felt the geographical qualifier " Southern " had become superfluous , and so passed legislation to formally become simply Rhodesia , but Britain refused to approve this on the grounds that the laws naming the country came under the purview of Whitehall , not Salisbury , and so could not be altered by the colonial government .