Editing Transvaal Colony (section)

== Repatriation and reconstruction ==
As the war ended the British were faced with a large proportion of [[Boer]] men as prisoners of war and their families in concentration camps.<ref name=Readers>{{cite book|last=Oakes|first=Dougie|title=Illustrated History of South Africa – The Real Story|year=1992|publisher=Reader's Digest|location=South Africa|isbn=9781874912279}}</ref>{{rp|269}} As the British followed a [[scorched earth]] policy in the Transvaal, Boer lands, stock and farms had been destroyed.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|266}}

At the conclusion of the war, it was necessary to reconstruct a "government" for the new colony and this was begun with the appointment of a Resident Magistrate in every district of the colony who became District Commissioners while an Assistant Magistrate carried out the legal and magisterial duties of the area.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|88}} Roman-Dutch law was translated into English so the law courts could continue, with some old acts repealed and a considerable amount of new law promulgated by the authorities in Johannesburg.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|89}}

The Resident Magistrate then submitted the names of three members of the district to the Governor for district commission under the magistrate.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|88}} They would consist of one British subject, and two Boers, one from those who had surrendered early on in the war and one who had fought until the end.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|90}} The commission would have two functions, one to provide assistance and issuing of rations, equipment, transport and plough animals to those affected by the war, and the second to investigate claims for compensation for actual damages sustained during the war.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|90}}

Repatriation depots were established in the districts and they were stocked with food, seed, agricultural equipment, transport, plough animals, stone and building material.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|90}} The rail transport network struggled to compete with the army transport requirement to maintain a garrison and civilian requirements to repair the colony.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|89}} All feed for transport animals had to be brought to the depots as the process started in the winter of 1902.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|89}} Refugees from the concentration camps and prisoners of war were returned to their districts in a system of drafts.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|88}} At the depots, they would receive farm equipment, tents and rations to start again and transport to their destinations.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|88}} Food rations were provided for almost a year.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|88}} Families would receive a token grant irrespective of their ability to pay it back and additional material and equipment required were obtained via interest-free loans with small cash loans also attracting no interest, with larger loans attracting four percent interest by a mortgage.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|90}} The loan scheme was never going to compensate a person for the actual loss experienced by the war.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|90}} Damage and the reconstruction required varied from district to district.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|91}}

In the larger towns, municipal or health boards were "appointed" to manage them under the Resident Magistrate.<ref name="Stone">{{cite journal | jstor=25119583 | title=The Transvaal: After the War | author=Stone, F.G | journal=The North American Review | year=1904 | volume=179 | issue=572 | pages=83–95 }}</ref>{{rp|95}} They had limited functions and the only rates they levied were for sanitary functions.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|95}} Within fifteen months of the end of the war, the municipal government was introduced with preparations made for fair elections based on property valuation and the creation of voters' rolls with the registration process explained in English and Dutch.<ref name=Stone/>{{rp|95}}

===Economic issues===
The British administrators set out to place most Boer farmers back on their land by March 1903 with nineteen million [[Pound sterling|pounds]] spent on war damages, grants and loans.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|266}} The administrators reformed the state agricultural departments to modernise farming in the colony which resulted in a maize and beef surplus by 1908.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|271}} They also attempted to solve the poor white problem by settling them as tenant farmers on state land, but the lack of capital and labour caused the scheme to fail.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|269}} An attempt was made to place English settlers on farmland so as to anglicise the Transvaal and increase the English-speaking population but this failed, too, as the policy attracted too few settlers.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|269}}

By the end of 1901, gold mining finally resumed on the Rand around [[Johannesburg]], having virtually stopped since 1899. Backed by the mining magnates and the British administrators, there was a need to restart the industry but labour was required. Just prior to the war, white miners wages were high and magnates weren't keen to increase the wages and since black miners wages had been reduced before the war and not increased, so black labourers weren't interested in working the mines.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|267}} Unskilled white labour was ruled out as their wages would be too high for the work done, so the mining magnates and their [[South African Chamber of Mines|Chamber of Mines]] in 1903 sought alternative labour in the form of cheap Chinese workers.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|267}} The legislation to import Chinese labour was introduced to the Transvaal Legislative Council on 28 December 1903 by George Farrar and was debated for 30 hours and successfully voted on after its three readings on 30 December 1903, coming into law in February 1904.<ref name=Bright/>{{rp|36}} Having been rubber-stamped by the British and mining appointed Transvaal Legislative Council it outlined extremely restrictive employment contracts for the Chinese workers and the idea had been sold via a fear campaign aimed at white miners about the need for this labour or face the possibility of loss of mining and their jobs.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|267}} By 1906, the gold mines of the [[Witwatersrand]] were in full production and by 1907, South African gold mines represented thirty-two percent of the worlds gold output.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|268}} By 1910, Chinese labour ended on the Witwatersrand and the restrictive job reservation laws preventing Chinese miners doing certain jobs was replicated for Black miners.<ref name=Readers/>{{rp|268}}

===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}}