cuar. iu] THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 799 
any inquiries made by the Consul of the Netherlands under 
the Convention of 1856 ought to have been addressed to the 
Federal Government. 
The Secretary of State in a dispatch of November 25, 1902,! 
gave a reasoned opinion on the whole issue, of which the gist 
was that the Commonwealth, apart from technical legal 
considerations, was a new entity for purposes of external 
affairs, replacing the states in this respect, and that the ques- 
tion how an obligation of the Commonwealth was to be dealt 
with locally was not a matter which affected the principle 
that the obligation was one of the Commonwealth as such, 
and not of a state. 
The following is the main portion of his dispatch : 
My own views on the subject were indicated, as 1 have 
already pointed out in my telegram of the 1st of October 
last, by the fact that I addressed the Commonwealth upon 
the subject of the complaint of the Dutch Government in the 
first instance, and though I have examined the Memorandum 
of your ministers with the closest attention, I have not been 
able to find any sufficient reason to modify them. 
it is due to your ministers that I should state in as full 
and frank a manner as that in which they themselves have 
expressed their views the reasons which have led me to a 
conclusion different from that which commends itself to them. 
In the first place, it appears to me that the aim and object 
of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act was 
not to create merely a new administrative and legislative 
machinery for the six states united in the Commonwealth, 
but to merge the six states into one united federal state or 
Commonwealth furnished with the powers essential to its 
existence as such. Before the Act came into force each of 
the separate states, subject, of course, to the ultimate 
authority of the Imperial Parliament, enjoyed practically 
all the powers and all the responsibilities of separate nations. 
By the Act a new state or nation was created armed with 
paramount power not only to settle the more important 
internal affairs relating to the common interests of the 
anited peoples, but also to deal with all political matters 
arising between them and any other part of the Empire or 
(through His Majesty’s Government) with any foreign 
OWer. 
L Parl. Pap., Cd, 1587, pp. 12-5.