The British Scuttle And The German Scuttle By Vulcan

He was a bit of a curmudgeon, and I rather expected to find him grumbling about the coal shortage. But I found him sitting in the kitchen quite cheerily, although the fire was burning low. ‘You see’, he said, pointing to the empty scuttle, ‘I’ve finished my allowance for the day. But that doesn’t bother me’. And he laughed as if at some secret joke he was hugging himself. ‘What are you laughing at?’ I said. ‘Well’ he answered, ‘whenever I see a scuttle I think of the Germans scuttling and the Bulgars scuttling and the big scuttle of the Turks in Palestine. I guess if it comes to scuttles, we British have got the best of it’. ‘Yes’ I replied, ‘the coat we do without is making it hot for the Germans’. ‘And perhaps it won’t be very long’ he added, ‘before we hear the Rhine whine’. ‘Of course’, he said becoming serious, ‘one does feel the cold a bit sometimes, but when I think of the boys in hospital and the other fellows in the ice and slush of the trenches I feel a bit ashamed if I’m tempted to growl’.

Gazette dated 22 October 1918