Black women in what was then the Orange Free State protested when they were included in Pass legislation previously reserved for African men only. The Executive Committee of the Orange Free State Native and Coloured Women's Association sent a petition to Governor-General Gladstone. Women pleaded with him to persuade the Prime Minister and Minister of Native Affairs to relax the pass laws. By 1918, this matter was discussed with the Prime Minister, Louis Botha . This law was subsequently relaxed until the 1950s.