It is highly to be desired that
this favourable position should become the seat of government. Although
the troops in 1879 are camped among the barren rocks beneath the
pine-forests upon Mount Troodos, at an elevation of about 5800 feet
above the sea, there is no necessity for a station at so extreme and
inconvenient an altitude in north latitude 35 degrees. The general
unhealthiness of the troops upon the first occupation of the island
during the summer and autumn of 1878, determined the military
authorities to arrange the new camp at the greatest altitude practicable
with a regard to the supply of water, but the experience gained in 1879
proves that a permanent camp, or barracks, may be equally healthy at a
lower and more convenient level. This fact would establish an additional
advantage in the selection of Limasol for headquarters, as the troops
would be in the immediate neighbourhood at all seasons. Colonel Warren,
R.A., who had been the prime mover in all the improvements that had been
made in Limasol since the British occupation, was promoted on 1st August
to the position of chief of the staff under Sir Garnet Wolseley's able
successor, Major-General Biddulph, C.B., R.A., and the district thus
lost its leading spirit. In reforming abuses and promoting progress,
Colonel Warren had not entirely escaped the usual fate of men who are in
advance of their age.
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