Editing Transvaal Colony (section)

===Political issues===

From the end of the war in 1902, the political administration of the Transvaal colony was controlled by members of a legislative and executive council, all appointed by the British Administrators under Alfred Milner and the [[Secretary of State for the Colonies|Colonial Secretary]] in London.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|269}} In 1903, three seats in the Transvaal Legislative council were offered to [[Louis Botha]], [[Jan Smuts]] and [[Koos de la Rey]], but they turned the British down.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|269}} Due to a lack of a hearing given to the opinions of the Boer generals by the English administrators concerning Chinese mine labour, due to a belief that they did not represent the Boer population, and due to the lack of self-rule,  Louis Botha and others met in 1904 at a ''Volkskongres''.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|270}} The result of this people congress was the unification of the Boer political movement in the Transvaal into a new party called [[Het Volk (political party)|Het Volk]] in January 1905 by Louis Botha and Jan Smuts.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|270}} This new party's objective was to seek reconciliation with Britain, which would be favoured by the British opposition [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]], and Boer self-rule for the Transvaal.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|270}}

English political movements included the Transvaal Responsible Government Association, the Transvaal Progressive Association and labour groups under an Industrial Labour Party.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|270}} The Transvaal Responsible Government Association was formed in late 1904 by [[Edward Philip Solomon|E.P Solomon]] and made up of a loose gathering of ex-colonial and [[South African Republic|ZAR]] officials and diamond mining magnates, labour and businessmen.<ref name=Bright/>{{rp|167}} They called for the allowance of the colony to create its own policy and strive for self-government and for the party to be eventually renamed the Nationalists.<ref name=Bright/>{{rp|168}} The Transvaal Progressive Association, formed in November 1904 and active from February 1905, had a similar membership but was linked to the mining industry's opposed self-rule and preferred a legislature nominated by the High Commissioner with strong links to Britain.<ref name=Bright/>{{rp|168}} They were led by [[George Farrar]] and [[Percy Fitzpatrick]].<ref name=Bright/>{{rp|168}}

The pro-Boer Liberal Party in Britain came to power in January 1906 with a new policy for the two former Boer colonies, one of self-rule.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|270}} Jan Smuts visited [[London]] and managed to persuade the new government to formulate a system that would favour the Boers and Het Volk in a new political assembly.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|270}} More than a year later in February 1907 an election was held with Het Volk running on two issues; Chinese labour needing to be ended when new labour sources were found and reconciliation with Britain with which they hoped would attract the English labourer vote as well as selling themselves as an alternative to the mining capitalistic [[Progressive Party (Cape Colony)|Progressive Party]].<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|270}}