Giovanni Bettolo

Giovanni Bettolo was born in Genoa to Antonio Bettolo and Angela Molinari, from a family with patriotic traditions, originally from Valsugana. He was the oldest of three brothers one of whom became an army general while the other ruined himself gambling. Giovanni entered the Regia Marina as an ensign in 1863 and was decorated for valour at the battle of Lissa for his conduct on the frigate Principe Umberto.^[6]

He became an admiral, working to rebuild the Italian fleet after the disastrous defeat at Lissa. Specialising in naval gunnery, he promoted the use of large calibre guns for naval artillery and the strategic use of torpedo boats. In 1879, with the rank of lieutenant, he was sent to Essen to study the advanced techniques of German industry. He published Manuale teorico pratico d'artiglieria navale (Theoretical and Practical Manual of Naval Artillery).^[6][7][8]

He came to the attention of Navy Minister Benedetto Brin, an energetic moderniser, who involved him in solving a range of technical issues faced by the Italian navy, from methods of testing the strength of armour plating to the development of a device to calculate target distance between two moving ships in order to make gunfire more accurate. Known as the “Indicatore dei fuochi Bettolo” (“Bettolo fire indicator”).^[9] This device, developed in 1877, was displayed at the 1884 Turin exhibition.^[10] He improved on his first invention and in 1883 produced an updated mechanism known as the “indicatore di lancio Bettolo” (“Bettolo launch indicator”).^[6]

In 1895, commanding the ironclad Re Umberto, Bettolo joined a number of Italian ships at the ceremony for the opening of the Kiel Canal.^[11] In 1897 he was promoted to rear admiral^[6] and also served as deputy inspector of naval engineering.^[12] During the international intervention in Crete Bettolo took over from Felice Napoleone Canevaro in 1898 as the admiral in charge of the Italian naval forces operating near the island.^[13] During the same year he was appointed Navy Chief of Staff.^[6]

He elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the constituency of Genoa from 1890 to 1900 and then for Recco from 1900-1916.^[14][1] He also served three times as Minister of the Navy in the second Pelloux, Zanardelli and second Sonnino governments.

During his first term as minister, Bettolo had the naval engineer Vittorio Cuniberti develop plans for Italy’s Regina Elena-class battleships. As a member of the Triple Alliance Italy was expecting to confront the French navy in the Mediterranean, with British support. Numerical superiority in warships was impossible against such enemies, so the aim was to build ships faster than enemy battleships but better armoured than enemy cruisers.^[15][16] This was a building programme Bettolo had advocated as admiral before he became minister.^[17]

As soon as Bettolo returned to the Ministry of the Navy for his second term in April 1903, the editor of the socialist newspaper Avanti!, Enrico Ferri, started a ferocious campaign against him, claiming that he had increased the salary of the President of the Superior Council of the Navy in order to induce him to approve a contract for the supply of naval armour in the amount of 20 million lire with the Terni steelworks, branding him a corrupt profiteer. He also noted that every time Bettolo was appointed to a senior role, Terni shares rose in value.^[18] Bettolo denied these claims in parliament and the chamber voted not to set up a commission of enquiry, but Giolitti then resigned from the cabinet and Bettolo followed him a few days later. He then brought a successful case for defamation against Ferri.^[19][20][21]

Bettolo’s brief third term was dominated by the question of “convenzioni marittime”, that is, the arrangements between the state and various private firms that built merchant ships or operated shipping lines. This was a controversial topic: the previous Giolitti government had managed to secure the passage of a similar set of measures through parliament in 1908, but the controversy about state subsidies for private firms was so intense that in 1909 Giolitti’s cabinet was forced to resign.^[22]

Bettolo’s bill proposed to limit subsidies and reduce various fees that shipping firms could charge.^[23]: 37 It was attacked on many grounds, including that it put Italian merchant shipping into the hands of the predominantly German-owned Banca Commerciale Italiana^[24] and that it increased the liabilities of the state without strengthening the merchant navy;.^[23]: 174 Above all, Bettolo’s bill was accused of being an effort to “salvage old hulks” (“salvataggio delle vecchie carcasse”) - i.e. unviable and moribund navigation companies.^[25] The disputes about the bill eventually led to the resignation of the Sonnino government.^[26]