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SECRET.
No. 177 R.
Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. March 2, 1898.
C.O. No. 21712.
NEW ZEALAND.
Report of Commandant, 1897.
Remarks by the Colonial Defence Committee.
THE Colonial Office have referred to the Colonial Defence Committee the Report of the Commander of the Defence Forces of New Zealand, dated the 1st September, 1897.
2. Colonel Penton, at the outset of his Report, states his opinion that the defence question in New Zealand "is treated very lightly by the majority of the people, and the probability of any attack being made on the Colony by a foreign force is regarded as absolutely unlikely to happen, or to be such a remote contingency that it is not worth serious consideration.'
In view of this statement, it may be well for the Colonial Defence Committee to point out that they have always looked upon any serious attack on New Zealand under existing conditions as improbable, basing this belief on the distance of the Colony from possible hostile bases, and on the relative strength in Far Eastern waters of the British navy and of the navies of those Powers with which the British Empire might find itself at war. The recently developed activity of certain foreign countries with regard to China may ultimately result in conditions less favourable to the security of Australia and New Zealand, but there is no reason to fear at present a condition of affairs which would make possible the invasion of the British countries in the Southern Hemisphere. At the same time, every development of foreign power in the Far East, and every improvement extending the radius of ship action, increases the possibility of a descent of isolated ships on the ports of these countries, while their large and growing importance adds to the necessity for giving them not only security against such hostile raids, but also that feeling of security which would be essential in war if commercial interests are not to suffer. There is no doubt that, however much the possibility of attack may be derided when there is no probability of war, no scrious threat of it occurs without producing a sense of uneasiness, resulting, as in 1878 and 1895, in a considerable outlay of money not always in a direction likely to be of most permanent value. The maintenance of a small force, always in a state of efficiency, and carefully organized with a definite view to meeting the raids which, if they occur at all, are most likely to do so at the very outset of a war, is the most economical and satisfactory way of preventing the recurrence of scares, as well as of building up that military spirit on which the very existence of a great nation at some period or other of its carcer must ultimately depend.
3. The permanent forces of the Colony consist of two companies, of which No. 1, made up of 3 officers and 178 men, is apparently told off to artillery duties, and No. 2, of 2 officers and 78 men, to submarine mining. The Commandant reports that the technical training of the officers is insufficient, and the method of their
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