4. That the military and naval defence of Australia shall be intrusted
to Federal forces under one command.
I submit these resolutions as a groundwork on which a debate may be
raised on the whole question with which we have to deal. They certainly
give a fair expression of the outline of the constitution which we want,
as it exists in my own mind, and to that extent I at once acknowledge
the paternity of the motion I make. I venture to appeal to every colony,
and to every delegate representing every colony, to meet the work on
which we are about to begin, in a broad federal spirit. We cannot hope
for any just conclusion--we cannot hope reasonably for any amount of
valid success--unless we lose sight to a large extent of the local
interests which we represent at the same time that we represent the
great cause.
There can be no federation if we should happen, any of us, to insist
upon conditions which stand in the way of federation; there can be no
complete union of these governments, of these communities, of these
separate colonies, unless we can so far clear the way as to approach the
great question of creating a federal power as if the boundaries now
existing had no existence whatever.
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