Sonnino, Sidney

SONNINO, SIDNEY. - Statesman, b. at Pisa on 11 March 1874, d. at Rome on 24 Nov. 1922.

After a seven-year period (1867-73) spent in the diplomatic service, he settled in Rome, where he founded and directed the Rassegna, first a weekly and then a daily, which was the expression of the Right, at that time precisely removed from power. A deputy from 1880, he became undersecretary and minister of Finance under Crispi: in 1896 he brought the budget to balance. Loyal to Crispi even after Adwa, he was the recognized leader of the constitutional opposition, although he never wished to bind his friends into an autonomous party. In 1906 and then in 1909, he held the presidency of the Council but for only a few months, so that he was unable to carry out the reforms he desired, aimed on the one hand at improving the conditions of the working classes and on the other at strengthening the authority of the State through a more rigid and exact application of the constitutional Charter. Opposed by Giolitti, disliked by most for his reserved and disdainful character, in 1914 - after San Giuliano's death - he was called by Salandra to the Foreign Ministry, which he held until 1918. A Jew by birth and a Protestant by religion, he had inserted into the Treaty of London which he concluded the clause excluding the Holy See from participating in the future peace conference, and he stipulated the conclusions of the meetings of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and Rapallo. Foreign Minister also in the Boselli and Orlando cabinets, he was the foremost among the Italian delegates at Versailles; but his clashes with Clemenceau and above all with Wilson prevented him from securing for Italy the benefits he had anticipated. On the fall of the Orlando ministry, he withdrew from public life, nor did he take part in the proceedings of the Senate, although he had obtained the laticlave in 1920. His last political manifestation was the manifesto against the introduction of the proportional system in the general elections, which he considered subversive of parliamentary custom.

Renzo U. Montini