Page - 380 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

380 ‘The King of Italy has declared war on Me nicipal autonomy in the mixed Italian territories that remained in Austria ; an Italian university and free port in Trieste, which was to ultimately become a free city ; Vlorë in Albania ; Austria-Hungary’s lack of interest in Albania ; the safeguarding of the na- tional interests of the Italian subjects of Austria-Hungary ; a sympathetic examination of the wishes of Italy regarding Gorizia and the Dalmatian islands ; guarantees from the German Empire for the loyal adherence to a treaty to be signed between Italy and Austria-Hungary. The Imperial and Royal ambassador in Rome, Baron Macchio, and the German ambassador, Prince Bülow, finally went even further in their offers than they had been instructed to do in their official versions and in the paperwork. Sonnino convened a session of the Council of Ministers on 12 May. The situation on this day was not favourable for those who made the case for Italian entry into the war. The Russians were beaten at Gorlice, the naval and landing operation of the En- tente powers in the Dardanelles had pretty much failed and nothing could be hoped for in the Balkans. Voices grew louder demanding that the war be called off at the last moment. The Italian press published the Austro-Hungarian offer, which appeared to the Italians, who were not aware of the details of the Treaty of London, to be extremely generous. The cabinet resigned. The interventionists had suffered a setback ; the neutral- ists, however, were not prepared for a government takeover. Giolitti had no chance of forming a cabinet. On 16 May, the King therefore refused the resignation of Salandra’s government. In this way, King Vittorio Emanuele tipped the scales : Giolitti did not want to oppose the King, so he avoided the confrontation and left Rome. The neutralist course had failed. The session of parliament took place, as planned, on 20 May. The most important point was the transfer of extraordinary powers to the royal government in the event of war. The Senate voted almost unanimously in favour and the vote in the Chamber, with 407 :74, was also very clear. This can be regarded as a textbook example of how, from a relatively insignificant group of interventionists and advocates of war, a nation could be pulled into war by the playing of the national card. It was less the course of the war than the end of the war that proved the interventionists and nationalists to have been right. The Italian poet Gabriele d’Annunzio spoke of ‘le radiose giornate di maggio’ (the radiant month of May). No-one could know that the decision to go to war would result in around a million dead and crippled. Austria-Hungary did not respond to events in Italy with a declaration of war, as Rome had perhaps expected. Instead, Burián reacted to the cancellation of the Triple Alliance treaty by rejecting the reasons given as irrelevant and above all by noting that in 1912 the Triple Alliance had been extended until 1920 at the request of Italy. There- fore, a termination could only be declared when this date had expired. In a Green Book, the Italians published several documents from the negotiations with Austria-Hungary on questions of compensation and cession, though not the documents of the parallel