Occultamento di una disfatta diplomatico-militare. La spedizione italiana in Albania (1914-1920) nei giudizi della Commissione parlamentare d’inchiesta sulle spese di guerra

Abstract

In July 1920 the Italian Prime Minister, Giovanni Giolitti, set up the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on war expenditures to examine how government ministries, departments and agencies had managed public money during the Great War. More specifically, the Commission had two task: 1) to ascertain any possible irregular use of public funds, and thus any undue profits obtained by government contractors under the war economy; and 2) to establish any moral, political, administrative and legal responsibility of government servants. At the end of its term, the Commission should submit to the Parliament a Final Report including both the resuls of its inquiry activities and the goals achieved. Among the issues on which the Commission had to investigate – and thus report on – there was the Italian military campaign in Albania (1914-1920), which ended in a humiliating withdrawal of Italian forces. The purpose of this work is to shed new light on the chapter of the Final Report devoted to the Italian intervention in Albania by: 1) reviewing briefly origins and scope of the Commission, as well as the role and importance of Albania in Italy’s Adriatic strategy; 2) examining the results of the Commission’s investigation as recorded in the minutes of proceedings; and 3) making a critical analysis of the the contents of the Final Report.