amar. 1] THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 801 
The constitution has furnished the Commonwealth with 
paramount power in regard to such matters, power wider in 
its scope than that vested in any individual state, and with 
corresponding responsibility ; the sphere of action possessed 
by the Commonwealth Executive extends over the whole 
area of that power and responsibility, and if the legislative 
or other machinery provided by the Commonwealth Parlia- 
ment, or by the States Legislatures, for the discharge of that 
responsibility is inadequate or defective, it is their duty to 
see that a remedy is provided, either by inviting the State 
Governments and Legislatures to do so, or by federal action. 
The constitution has, in fact, placed the Commonwealth as 
an intermediary between the Imperial Government and the 
states in regard to the matters assigned to it, and if His 
Majesty’s Government were to correspond direct with the 
states in regard to such matters, it would be tantamount to 
ignoring the obvious intention of the Act to fix the final 
responsibility for them on the Commonwealth. 
Unless the Federal Government is made the channel of 
communication for all federal matters, it will obviously be 
impossible for it to judge whether the existing arrangements 
are suitable and sufficient, or whether any special provision 
is required for dealing with them. 
The further argument that ‘from the practical side of 
affairs the channel of communication with the Imperial 
Government must be one in which some power relative to 
the subject of communication actually flows, especially 
where the subject may require action for the protection of 
[Imperial interests ’, appears to me to be based on the assump- 
tion that the power of the Commonwealth and its responsi- 
bilities are limited by the actual powers conferred for the 
time being on the Commonwealth Executive. 
The illustration cited by your ministers in the third 
paragraph of their Memorandum shows, however, that they 
are aware that in a state of a federal or quasi-federal nature, 
like the British Empire, the responsibilities of the Executive 
are not bounded by the powers with which it is for the time 
being armed. It is the Imperial Government that is imme- 
diately and ultimately responsible to a foreign power if a 
state officer in Australia, a Dominion or provincial officer 
in Canada, or an officer in any self-governing Colony violates, 
or acts in contravention of an Imperial obligation. But in 
the grant of self-government to the Colonies, the power to 
call upon such an officer for explanation of his conduct or 
to punish him has been placed by Parliament in the hands of 
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