This communication, transmitted to London, drew from the then Colonial Secretary, Mr. Chamberlain, an unanswerable reply, addressed to the Lieutenant-Governor and dated April 15, 1903, in part as follows: "Your Ministers contend ‘that the grant of power to the Commonwealth, notwithstanding the general terms of Section 3 of the Act, is strictly limited to the Departments transferred, and to matters upon which the Commonwealth Parliament has power to make laws and has made laws,’ and that ‘in the distribution of legislative and consequently of executive power, made by the Constitution, all powers not specifically ceded to the Commonwealth remain in the States.’ "They are unable to agree ‘with the contention that there does not appear to be anything in the Constitution to justify this limitation,’ and argue that the validity of any claim of the Commonwealth to any particular power, should be tested by enquiring:—Does the Constitution specifically confer the power? "The view of the Act which I take is that it is a Constitution Act, and creates a new political community. It expressly declares that ‘the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia.’ The object and scope of the Act is defined and declared by the preamble to be to give effect to the agreement of the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania 'to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established.’