TORONTO (CP) – Smile, clap hands and hope and the world will find peace. That, in brief, was the Christmas message the Lennons— John and Yoko—offered Saturday.

Both agreed that their way of achieving peace may be overly simple but said peace is a “very simple thing.”

“Peace is no violence, no frustration, no fear,” John Lennon said during an interview to be shown Christmas Day by the CBS television network.

“If I smile at you, you’re liable to smile back,” he told the CBS interviewer. “We’re smiling at the world.”

Earlier, he told Marshal McLuhan, author of The Medium is the Message, “that it’s a cinch to drop in anywhere in the world, clap your hands and get a good response.”

Between the interviews, the Lennons said a rock festival planned for next summer at nearby Mosport Park and the festival held this summer in Woodstock, N.Y., is the kind of event that can raise hopes for peace.

GIVING UP HOPE

“In London, we were giving up hope until the Woodstock festival,” he said. “The vibes (vibrations) from Woodstock were beautiful.”

“There were 125,000 people there—the largest group ever assembled that wasn’t meant to fight.”

Later he was interviewed on the CBC-TV program Weekend where he said he took drugs when he lost hope but added that those who take drugs “have no hope.”

He said that Canada is the first country he has come to where he has been given help.

During the CBS interview he said Canadian newspapers radio and TV stations were the first to give his peace campaign a chance.

NO IDENTITY

Mr. McLuhan explained that “having no national identity. Canada has never had any goals.”

“That’s why Canada is not as frustrated and therefore not as aggressive as most countries,” he said.

After a lengthy explanation by Mr. McLuhan of how individuals, corporations, countries and dinosaurs “grew large because of a flow of adrenalin to compensate for their frustration” Mr .Lennon gave an example of his dry humor.

“I knew we wouldn’t have to read your books,” he told Mr. McLuhan.

Although Mr. and Mrs. Lennon looked sombre in their black costumes and both were annoyed at missing their dinner because of the interviews, they were in fine form, making funny faces directly into the camera.

SHAKES HAIR

At one point, after Mr. McLuhan discussed at length the disappearance of dandruff commercials, Mr. Lennon shook his shoulder-length brown hair and said:

“Dandruff is still with us.”

The Lennons managed to include the word “peace” in almost every answer and said that it was intentional.

“We’ve manoeuvred all our production, our creativity, towards peace,” he told the CBS interviewer.

When asked what their Christmas message would be, Mrs. Lennon replied: “Peace.”

“Peace on earth,” her husband added.

With that they left Mr McLuhan’s Centre for Culture and Technology, slipped into their white Rolls – Royce limousine and were gone.