A coalition of the Conservative and Liberal Unionist parties took power in the United Kingdom shortly before the 1895 general election.

Eventually, the Unionist government would falter after Chamberlain proposed his scheme for tariff reform, whose partial embrace by Balfour led to the resignation of the more orthodox free traders in the Cabinet.

An important part of the rebuilding effort was to get the gold mines of the Witwatersrand, the richest in history and a major cause of the war, back in production as soon as possible.

[2] This was deeply unpopular at the time, as popular opinion in much of the Western world, including Britain; was hostile to Chinese immigration.

The Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union Congress then passed a resolution declaring that: That this meeting consisting of all classes of citizens of London, emphatically protests against the action of the Government in granting permission to import into South Africa indentured Chinese labour under conditions of slavery, and calls upon them to protect this new colony from the greed of capitalists and the Empire from degradation.With his majority greatly reduced and defeat in the next election seeming inevitable, Balfour resigned as Prime Minister in December 1905, leading to the appointment of a minority Liberal government under Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman.