Italy announces its accession to the Pact of London

On 1 December 1915 the Italian Chamber of Deputies met in Rome after a six-month break. The deputies had dispersed at the end of May, after granting the government full powers for the duration of the war, and since then Italy had been waging war without parliament. The sitting was opened by the President of the Chamber, Giuseppe Marcora, a veteran of the struggle for unification, with a patriotic speech about the King, the army and the fallen. Immediately after him the Foreign Minister, Sidney Sonnino, took the floor. His address was the first public exposition since the spring of the foreign policy of the government of Antonio Salandra, and its most important point was the news that Italy had, the day before in London, acceded to the joint undertaking of the Allies that none of them would conclude a separate peace.

“Let this be the seal”

Sonnino first recalled Italy’s road to war: the failed negotiations with Vienna, the declaration of war on Austria-Hungary in May, Germany’s breaking off of relations, the war with Turkey in August and with Bulgaria in October. He said that the common effort in negotiations and on the battlefields had convinced Rome of the need for a “public and solemn confirmation” of Allied solidarity, that is, a joint undertaking of the five powers renewing the declaration of France, Great Britain and Russia of 5 September 1914, which Japan had already joined. When he announced that Italy’s act of accession had already been signed in London, the chamber gave him a long ovation. The minister added a line from Dante’s “Inferno”: “E questo fia suggel ch’ogni uomo sganni”, roughly: “Let this be the seal that undeceives every man”. The words were addressed to those who, at home and abroad, speculated about a separate understanding between Rome and Vienna.

A collection of documents published in 1916 with the full record of these proceedings states that the declaration was signed “just yesterday, that is, on the day before the reopening of the Chamber”. The American press carried the news in dispatches dated Rome, 2 December, which is why some foreign sources, including the monthly “Current History”, give that date as the day of the speech. The stenographic record, however, leaves no doubt that Sonnino spoke on 1 December. After his speech the sitting was suspended until 4 p.m., as the government went to the Senate to repeat its statement there.

Serbia and the far shore of the Adriatic

The words about Serbia were received most warmly. Sonnino called its political and economic independence one of the pillars of Italian policy in the Balkans and declared that Italy, together with its allies, regarded the restoration of Serbia in full independence as an indispensable aim of the war. The deputies rose from their seats crying “Long live Serbia!”. The minister admitted that the defeated Serbian army was seeking a way of escape towards the sea, and announced that Italy would give help to King Peter’s army as soon as possible: together with its allies it would supply it with food and ammunition and facilitate its concentration. He added that the presence of the Italian flag on the opposite shore of the Adriatic would at the same time make it possible to reaffirm Italy’s traditional policy towards Albania, whose independence was a matter of the first importance for Rome. The Italians already held Vlorë at the time, and the minister’s words heralded the dispatch of troops further along the Albanian coast.

Among the aims of the war Sonnino listed natural frontiers and the “gates of Italy”, the liberation of Italians under Austrian rule, strategic security in the Adriatic that would make up for the unfavourable shape of Italy’s eastern coast, and the protection of Italian interests in the eastern Mediterranean. He spoke in generalities because the Treaty of London of April, which promised Italy specific acquisitions, was still secret. In London the speech was received with great satisfaction. The “Daily Chronicle” observed that Italy had still not declared war on Germany, but the joint declaration robbed this peculiar situation of its menacing overtones.

Vote of confidence

The debate on the government’s statement lasted until 4 December. The socialists and some supporters of the former Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti, an opponent of entering the war, criticised the cabinet, but the mood of the Chamber was clearly patriotic. The greatest impression was made by the speech of the socialist Ettore Ciccotti, who called on the deputies to show the same unity as the country was showing. Finally the Chamber voted by roll call on the motion of Paolo Boselli and Ciccotti: “The Chamber approves the policy of the government”. According to the stenographic record 406 deputies voted in favour and 48 against. The news agencies reported the result as 405 to 48. Against voted the socialists, on whose behalf Filippo Turati declared that opponents of the war must vote against the government that had brought it about, and, according to the “New York Times”, about a dozen Giolittians. Giolitti himself did not attend the sitting. The Senate, which debated the government’s statement on 16 and 17 December, supported it unanimously, by 221 votes.

The Austrians were convinced that the Fourth Battle of the Isonzo, under way since 10 November, had also been intended above all to give the government a success for the opening of parliament, and called it the “parliamentary battle”. The Italians did not take Gorizia, but Salandra’s government emerged from the December debate strengthened. It survived until June 1916, when it fell after the Austrian offensive in the Trentino.