The earliest Sofianos letter in the family archive, dated June 30, 1928, Piraeus — two pages of handwritten Greek from A.G. Sofianos (a Piraeus import/export merchant in soap-making materials, acetylenes, and chlorines, doing business under the telegraph address ARISTODIMON SOFIANON) to Lazaros in New York. The formal salutation “Dear Sir” (Φίλε Κύριε) — more formal than the later “My dear Lazaros” in the July and September 1928 letters — marks this as early in the Sofianos-Lazaros business relationship.
The substance is detailed financial reporting on Eftyhia’s compensation payout from the Pergamon-side refugee claim:
- Eftyhia received 53,260 drachmas from the Bank
- After withholding stamp duties, copies, postage, 1% Ministry of Agriculture external fee, and 3% office fees: net 50,407.80 drachmas
- 20,000 drachmas sent to Mr. Panagiotakis Georgelas “initially per your [Lazaros’s] instructions”
- The remainder allocated to “the inheritors of Achilles Karamitrou” — the first identified Karamitrou-side relative of Eftyhia beyond her father Sofianos. Most likely Eftyhia’s brother, deceased by mid-1928, with his own children inheriting his share
- 30,407.80 drachmas deposited at 6% interest pending Lazaros’s instructions, with three options offered: send in drachmas, convert to dollars, or deposit in a NYC bank in Lazaros’s name
Page 2 lists 232,000 drachmas in bonds outstanding, with 21,000 reserved for Georgelas, plus “new Compensations 17,388…Georgelas Petropolis…16,767…brother-in-law from Darvaron.” A 600-drachma installment goes to the bank.
The letter also passes on family news from Paris:
“Ninos is in Paris. He had surgery from John Gosset at the [clinique] this week. The operation succeeded well. The same week he exits the Clinic. He is very weak at present, [recovering in good treatment].”
Ninos’s surgery is referenced in two subsequent Sofianos letters (July and September 1928) — a months-long medical recovery managed in Paris while Lazaros, in New York, was being kept informed by Sofianos as the Piraeus-based family agent.
The letter is the start of a sustained ~monthly correspondence between Sofianos and Lazaros through 1928, documenting the financial-administrative machinery by which the Jeannopoulos household managed its Asia Minor refugee compensation claims and Greek-side family finances at distance.