Gaetano Salvemini - La politica estera italiana dal 1871 al 1915

Parte quarta 2. Dancing on eggs On September 14th, San Giuliano was informed that Berlin had left France a free hand in Morocco. On September 17th, Giolitti and the King took the decision to occupy Libya. On September 24th, San Giuliano in– structed the Italian ambassador in Berlin to open officia!negotiation: for the renewal of the Triple Alliance: he was to discuss "both the renewal of the Triple Alliance and the Libyan question." On September 29th, the Italian Government declared war on Turkey. In the afternoon of the same day, a few minutes after .the declaration of war had been delivered to Costantinople, an Italian squadron disabled two Turkish torpedoboats in the bay of Preveza, in the Ionian Sea off the coast of southern Albania. Albania (then, like Libya, part of the Ottoman Empire) was covered by an Austro-Italian agreement of 1897. This was an annex to the treaty of the Triple Alliance, and bound the two governments to abstain from any action which might disturb the statu quo in Albania and on its coasts. As soon as Aehrenthal, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, received news of the skirmish in the bay of Preveza, he protested "vigorously ": all military operations on the coasts of Albania, he declared, violateci the agree– ment of 1897; he would "use different language" if other operations of the kind took place. He demanded and received a formal pledge that such at– tempts would not be repeated (October 10th). fr was clear that the offer of a renewal of the Triple Alliance in advance of its date of expiry had not mol– lifìed hearts at Vienna. Meanwhile, between October 4th and 21st, the Italian troops, in contro! of the sea, landed at three points in Cyrenaica (Tobruk, Bengazi and Derna), and at two in Tripolitania (Tripoli and Homs), while the German ambassa– dor to Costantinople was exerting himself to induce the Ottoman Government to cede Libya on the condition that the nomina! sovereignty of the Sultan over I the country was preserved. Giolitti and San Giuliano, like the Italian army chiefs, believed that the– conquest of Libya, would be easy and swift. They therefore announced that they had accepted the German Government as mediator of peace with Constantinople (October 13th), and got the King to sign a decree putting Libya under uncondictional Italian sovereignty (November 5th). They had underestimated the difficulties of the conquest. In Tripolita– nia, and even more in Cyrenàica, the Italian troops had to face the hardships of colonia! warfare in a wast desert where all the resources necessary to an advance were lacking, beginning with water and means of transport. The Turkish troops and native bands vanished into the wilderness whenever the Italian were in superior forces only to reappear suddenly when there was chance of success by_a surprise attack. They did not lack arms, ammunitions or leadership since the Italians found it difficult to keep watch over the vast 440 BibliotecaGino Bianco