SALANDRA, ANTONIO (1853-1931), Italian statesman, was born at Troia, Puglia, in 1853. He first entered parliament as member for Lucera, and from the beginning of his political career was a Liberal of the right wing. When Baron Sonnino be came treasury minister in the Crispi cabinet of 1893, Salandra was chosen under-secretary in that department. He was minister of finance in the first Sonnino cabinet of 1906 and treasury min ister in the second (1909-1o). When, in March 1914, Giolitti re signed, Salandra was called upon to form the new cabinet, and in June he had to face a revolutionary outbreak in the Marches, Romagna and elsewhere. He was premier on the outbreak of the World War, and it was the Salandra cabinet which took the mo mentous decision of proclaiming Italy's neutrality, in spite of the existence of the Triple Alliance, because it was considered that as Austria had failed to fulfil her obligations under the treaty, no casus foederis had arisen.
In May 1915 Salandra assumed the still greater responsibility of bringing Italy into the war on the side of the Allies. On re
signing office in June 1916, in consequence of the Austrian offensive in the Trentino, he continued to support both the Boselli and the Orlando cabinets. During the disturbed period from 1919 to 1922 Salandra upheld the principles of orthodox Liberalism, and opposed the policy of the various cabinets who truckled to the extremists. He succeeded Tittoni as Italian delegate on the League of Nations Council and Assembly, and represented the Italian thesis in the Italo-Greek conflict arising from the massacre of the Tellini mission in Epirus in Aug. 1923. The Fascist movement was supported from the first by Salandra, but he did not join the Fascist party, and when he felt that Fascism was incompatible with the old Liberal tradition, especially after Mussolini's speech of Jan. 3, 1925, he withdrew his support, without, however, aban doning the Chamber. Subsequently his opposition became con siderably attenuated, and in 1928 on the proposal of Mussolini, he was created a senator. Salandra died Dec. 19, 1931.