In the summer of 1897 Andreas Syngros undertook to privately visit the countries of western Europe. His objective was unofficial negotiation regarding Greece's old debts

and the possibility of contracting a new loan that would allow the payment of war indemnities to Turkey.

'After the signing of the armistice between Turkey and Greece at the beginning of May, upon visiting A. Simopoulos, along with the Minister of Finance, I cannot recall on what grounds the discussion turned among others to war indemnities and the way to secure a loan in order to pay them [..].

Simopoulos seemed to pay a lot of attention to my opinion and asked me for my opinion concerning the legendary financial control.

I repeated to him what I have often told many people, himself included. Namely that, according to my opinion, the fuss about the word control and risks resulting from it concerning the decrease in the sovereign rights of the State, in such a way that has been initially proposed by the committees of the bondholders, had no other character than a demagogic one [...].

To reinforce my statements I have brought as an example the existing Society of the Ottoman monopolies, the statutes of which accepts among the managers (councillors) a representative of the British Hambro, and the French Company Comptoir d' Escompte; by concession the Council is run by a Greek person, a representative however being the director of a company which is subject to the Ottoman empire [...].

I did this willingly, [...] discussing and recommending [...] and insisting that the suggested financial control. would not cause any harm. I use the word as has been established for short, but in my discussions then I supported the view that this is not a government control, but a supervision over the management and collection of certain State annuities [...].

After that, said Theotokis, they would entreat me to go to the West and take charge of negotiations concerning the compromise and compulsory loan [...].

On that same day at 11am I received the following telegram from Skouloudis:
The telegram ran as follows: be kind enough to ask for an interview through our ambassador in Berlin, the the appropriate Minister, and being accepted state that you have been ordered to come to an understanding with individuals so as to reach a fair compromise, the Government strongly wishing the resolution of this issue, which heavily burdens the financial state of the country, and is closely related to contracting the reparations loan, without which the full evacuation of Thessaly (according to the statements of the Great Powers) will delay; for the execution of our order address the representatives of the borrowers; [...] If after our answer the Minister consents to a discussion, be willing to demonstate with the greatest courage the destructive consequences, which international financial control will have on the country [...].

I recalled the Chian proverb running it's a pubic secret and I was wondering how it is possible for the Greek government to have high hopes of avoiding the 'financial control' [...].

A few days after my arrival in Paris I received a telegram from Athens with the request on behalf of the Ministry, to engage in ensuring a temporary loan reaching the sum of 1,000,000 liras (Turkish I assumed), through which according to the same Ministry, the evacuation of Thessaly by the Turks would be secured [...]. At the same time I was asked to what percentage of the sum I I could participate myself in that loan.

Being still in Berlin, I had formed the opinion, that if we did not pay off our old debts towards Germany, Grece would not be likely to achieve from the rest of Europe the least financial aid against any guarantee provided [...]. This opinion of mine was grounded on the conclusions I have reached from my discussions I had with the Paris economic agents, on the other hand I was well aware of the deep distrust in all without exception Greek capitalists abroad [...].

Some did not even bother to give me an answer; some others answered: we still donate but we do not lend any more; others for my sake and in order not to turn me down accepted to participate with sums so trivial that they incensed my choler [...]. In order to encourage them, I showed my own participation of 200,000 liras along with the Athens Bank under my own responsibility, but received the abrupt answer, 'I will be left with the 200,000 liras, since I could not gather verbatim pas meme vingt cinq centimes all over Europe."

Syngros A., Apomnimonevmata, (ed A. Angelou, M.Ch. Hatziioannou), book second, volume 3, Athens, Estia editions, 1998 (1st edition 1908), pp.193-196, 226-227, 236 and 241-243.