Tourists, Excursionists

Thirsty desert travelers often glimpse sparkling oases which vanish on closer approach, are found to be mirages, optical illusions, frauds.

So last week seemed the Ontario Oasis which last fortnight (TIME, May 23) beckoned so invitingly to parched U. S. throats. Ontario had gone wet, Ontario was easily accessible, many a U. S. citizen planned Canadian weekends, magnificently moist.

Then last week Chairman D. H. Hanna of the Ontario Liquor Com-mission made ominous pronouncement. Said he: "American visitors will be disappointed if they expect any big blowouts in Ontario. Liquor cannot be bought without a permit and one-day tourists will not be able to get either permits or liquor." He warned U. S. railroads, reported as hav-ing advertised special trains to Ontario that "excursionists" would not be given permits, would return dry, disappointed.

Saddened, U. S. citizens again scanned the provisions of the Ontario liquor law. They found that although "regular" permits to purchase liquor required 30 days' Ontario residence, there were also "tourist" permits which specified no residence requirement. It appeared that Mr. Hanna was making a distinction, hitherto unthought of, between "tourists" and "excursion-ists." Just how long an excursion into Canada would have to last to constitute a tour, just when an excursionist, barred from purchasing liquor became a tourist, to whom alcoholic beverages would be freely dispensed, remained for the future to decide.

Meanwhile the following Ontario liquor prices were tantalizingly announced : Scotch whiskey (Black & White), $3.55 per quart.

Queen Anne whiskey, $3.75 per quart.

Sandy McDonald Scotch whiskey, $3.55 per quart.

Beer (brands unspecified), 17-c- per pint, six pints for $1.00, six quarts for $1.75.