On 13 February 1918 these fears were fully confirmed when the full text was read out in the Italian Chamber of Deputies. The effect was explosive. There was outrage even on the government benches, as ministers learned for the first time of the discreditable, annexationist demands for which Italy had been fighting. Giovanni Giolitti, the pre-war leader of Italian liberalism, who had opposed the alliance with the Entente in 1915, demanded that the war be brought to an end immediately.
