Sonnino becomes Italian foreign minister

At the beginning of November 1914 Baron Sidney Sonnino became Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. He replaced the Prime Minister, Antonio Salandra, who had been temporarily in charge of diplomacy since the death of Antonino di San Giuliano in mid-October. The appointment was part of the reshuffle of the government that Salandra had begun at the end of October.

3 or 5 November?

The British chronology of the war records Sonnino’s appointment under 3 November. According to Italian sources, including the Treccani encyclopaedia, the appointment took place on 5 November, however, when the whole second Salandra cabinet was sworn in before King Victor Emmanuel III. Talks on its composition had been going on since 2 November, when the king again entrusted Salandra with forming a government, so news of Sonnino’s entry into the cabinet may have reached the press earlier. It has not been possible, however, to establish exactly where the date of 3 November came from. Formally Sonnino took office on 5 November.

Who Sonnino was

He was born in 1847 in Pisa. His father was an Italian Jew who had converted to Anglicanism, and his mother was Welsh. A lawyer by training, he made his name as a researcher into the poverty of the Sicilian peasants, and later as a politician of the liberal right and Minister of the Treasury. He was twice Prime Minister, in 1906 and at the turn of 1909 and 1910, but neither of his governments lasted more than a few months. He was considered uncompromising, stern and taciturn, but also honest and hard-working.

In the first days of the war Sonnino believed that Italy should remain faithful to the Triple Alliance. He soon accepted, however, the reasoning of Salandra and San Giuliano: neutrality gave time to arm the army and made it possible to wait for the best opportunity. As minister he continued the policy of “sacred egoism”, that is, bargaining with both sides for the highest possible price for Italian neutrality or for entry into the war.

The road to the Treaty of London

In December 1914 Sonnino opened talks with Vienna. He invoked Article VII of the Triple Alliance treaty, which promised Italy compensation if Austria-Hungary gained new territory in the Balkans. He demanded lands inhabited by Italians, above all Trentino. Vienna long delayed, and its later offers were too modest for Rome and were to take effect only after the war.

At the same time Sonnino explored what the Entente could offer. On 4 March 1915 the Italian ambassador in London, Marquis Guglielmo Imperiali, presented Italy’s terms to the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey. After several weeks of bargaining, on 26 April 1915, the secret Treaty of London was signed. The Entente promised Italy, among other things, Trentino and South Tyrol up to the Brenner Pass, Trieste, Istria, part of Dalmatia and the Albanian port of Vlorë. The city of Fiume (now Rijeka) was not on the list. In May 1915 Italy entered the war against Austria-Hungary.

Sonnino directed Italian diplomacy until June 1919. At the Paris Peace Conference he stubbornly demanded the fulfilment of the London promises, and Fiume as well, which led to a sharp dispute with President Woodrow Wilson.