804 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV 
the states exclusively or a power in respect of which the 
Commonwealth has exclusive or paramount jurisdiction ; it 
must be determined by the answer to the question whether 
the particular exercise of the power is a matter in which the 
Crown is concerned solely in its capacity as part of the 
constitution of the state, or in which the Crown is concerned 
as the central authority of the aggregate of communities 
composing the Empire. 
The principles laid down in this dispatch were acted on 
in the Benjamin and Weigall cases.! The former case arose 
out of a claim suggested by the Queensland Government for 
compensation by the United States Government on behalf 
of Mr. G. J. Benjamin, in respect of ill-treatment at San 
Francisco, and the Secretary of State for the Colonies referred 
the matter back to the Commonwealth Government and not 
to the Government of Queensland. The Secretary of State 
then took the view that it was to the Commonwealth alone, 
through the Imperial Government, that external countries 
could look for remedy or relief. It was an essential part of the 
Federal Constitution that in his relations with communities 
outside Australia a citizen of the Commonwealth was to be 
regarded not as a Victorian or a Queenslander, but as an 
Australian. Weigall’s case was that of an Australian ill- 
treated in Manchuria. His case was represented to the 
Imperial Government through the Government of New 
South Wales, and again the Secretary of State thought the 
Commonwealth must not be ignored. 
Friction arose also over the regulations as to landing of 
sailors from foreign war vessels in state ports; the Common- 
wealth had, on the one hand, the control of defence, the state 
that of domestic police, but after discussion at the Brisbane 
Conference of 1907, an amicable solution was arrived at in 
19102 The states retain all their richt of police power, and 
t Cf. the discussion of these cases at the Premiers’ Conference at Brisbane 
in 1907 ; Victoria Parl. Pap., 1907, No. 23, pp. 37-417. 
* Of. Victoria Parl. Pap., 1907, No. 23, pp. 271 seq. ; Commonwealth 
Statutory Rules, No. 31 of 1909, modified in the direction of recognizing state 
authority by No. 29 of 1910, and again later see Age, October 17, 1910: 
Rules. No. 29 of 1911.