OBITUARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25849, 21 May 1945, Page 6

OBITUARY

VITTORIO ORLANDO (Rec. 10.15 p.m.) ROME, May 19. The death has occurred of Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, the last surviving member of the Versailles Big Four.

Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, who was born in 1860, in Sicily, was a distinguished jurist and statesman until the advent of Fascism with which he had no sympathy. He was Minister of the Interior in Buseli’s Cabinet (1916) and succeeded hint as Prime Minister in the next year, when he proved a tower of strength to Italy and the Allies after the disastrous defeat of Cadorna’s forces at Caporetto, one of the several classical fiascos that mark the Italians’ modern military history. At the Peace Conference at Versailles in 1919 he was one of the "Big Four," the conclave whose decisions, on all matters of supreme Importance were final. He seceded from the Inter-Allied Council of Four in May on the question of Flume, and went home to consult the Italian Parliament and his colleagues. There he was successful in moderating the toojlngoistic attitude of his countrymen and he returned to Paris to rejoin the council with proposals for a compromise, which were regarded as satisfactory, in accordance with Ills bias towards a direct understanding with the Jugoslavs.