An unidentified author produced a substantial article entitled "Cyprus Under British Rule" for "Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine" of 1888. Two paragraphs of the article refer to the postal service. These are reproduced below, where original punctuation is preserved:

"The postal arrangements, although a wonderful advance upon the days of Turkish administration when letters were scrambled for at the Austrian Consulate at Larnaca -- or even upon Constantinople itself in this very year, where is no Turkish post whatever -- leave a good deal to be desired. Letters are only carried to and from the principal towns, and are not delivered at all. If a man expects a letter, he sends to the post office to meet it; if he does not, it lies there until he happens to call for it, and this even at Nicosia, the capital. I remember soon after my arrival receiving a telegram from a perfect stranger: "Send to post-office for letter despatched to-day." I thought the sender must have taken leave of his senses, but found he was only better acquainted than I was with the peculiarities of the Cyprus post-office. The telegraphs are not under Government management, but are worked by the Eastern Telegraph Company, and are in every way excellent and admirable.

As regards communication with the outside world, postal or otherwise, there is little to be said, but that it is rare, slow and eminently unsatisfactory. For five years after the occupation, a subsidised service to Alexandria conveyed letters and passengers once a-week, in about seven days, to and from London. But as soon as the contract came to an end, the Treasury looking to the tribute, forbade any new subsidy being granted, and letters came and went a la grace de Dieu, and the "return of post" from London to Nicosia and back occupied six weeks at least. Within the last few months only, some order has taken the place of this chaos, and a slow and roundabout but regular service is provided by the French Messageries Maritimes once a-week, with an Austrian Lloyd steamer once a-fortnight "in case of need." And the result of this is not only that Cyprus trade has been injured and Cyprus industry checked, but that business to the extent of £50,000 or £60,000 a-year has been diverted from England to Marseilles and Trieste."