There’s a question all red- blooded Canadians with a slight inferiority complex should ask themselves.

If London town is so swinging, how come its number one son comes to Canada with an empty suitcase knowing that filling it is as easy as having $800 and 30 minutes?

Cause that’s just how long it took the Lennons… you know, John and Yoko… to park their white Rolls Royce on Yonge street in Toronto and swoop into Le Chateau.

John bought jumpsuits, hats and scarves…. Yoko bought everything in sight, including five blouses by Finnish designer, Hans Metzen. It’s easy to see how Yoko got the lion’s share of the purchases. Five blouses at each, and her pointing finger at other things added up to $600.

But then, the Lennons knew shopping wouldn’t be difficult.

When they were in Montreal last May for their bed-in, they dropped by Le Chateau on St. Catherine street at proprietor Hershie Segal’s invitation and bought eight jumpsuits … three each and two for their daughter Kyoko.

In Toronto last week they didn’t wait for an invitation.

They rang up, made an appointment and asked for privacy because they’re always mobbed.

And the store complied… locking all three doors.

But… the word had gone out and the mob gathered outside, making an exit impossible for the Lennons… a dignified exit, that is.

So, the store manager made his first public appearance, asked for calm and said the Lennons would be out if they would please behave themselves … the crowd did and were rewarded with John’s speech for peace before he and his wife got into their Rolls with all their bundles and drove off…

OTTAWA—Beatle John Lennon and his bride, Yoko, dropped in yesterday at Prime Minister Pierre’s parliamentary office for a parley on peace.

The appointment was for five minutes, but it went 55.

The busy Pierre, who only recently found it difficult to find time, at the federal-provincial constitutional conference, for some of the premiers who wished to see him in private, found it simple to fit the hairy pair into his schedule.

The time priorities of the trendy PM were somewhat more constricting last week when there was no way 50 dismissed federal civil servants—film board sackings— could get in to see him.

But Beatle John and Yoko I were a different matter: “We’re for peace, man,” they said.

Maybe the PM had something—for while the premiers and the film board purgees might have been for a lot of things, peace wasn’t exactly one of them.

There could be all sorts of future embarrassments for the trendy one in the tete a tete with John and Yoko.

Because from now on, when he finds it’s impossible to see Local 108 of the National Boiler Workers International Union, the Whitby Humane Society — or just about any other group—the howl will go up that he had time for these creatures who looked like they came from another world, which perhaps, in a sense, they did.

Clad from head to foot in funeral black, the touring Britons, claiming to be ambassadors of today’s youth, swept in through the doors of the centre block, surrounded by a small corps of managers and hangers-on.

They were escorted without delay to the prime minister’s office by his press secretary and several officers of the commons protective staff.

There was a short delay because the prime minister was in conference with the Privy Council clerk, Gordon Robertson, who came out of the PM’s office grinning in what might have been embarrassment, as the honored guests and 20 photographers and one ‘’pool” reporter crowded in.

Both the Beatle and his bride have shoulder – length hair. Yoko’s was crowned by a flappy black hat, big as an umbrella. She wore an ankle-length black knitted garment under a black greatcoat.

The one reporter who operated as a pool man for all the others, revealed that, after the greetings, the prime minister had thrown an arm around Yoko’s shoulders.

Beginning their conversation with the prime minister, John and Yoko stood with their arms locked around each other’s waists.

Some cameramen said they heard the PM refer to John and Yoko as “ambassadors.”

Following their tete a tete with the busy prime minister/ the two “ambassadors” of youth went out to Tunney’s Pasture to talk with Health Minister Munro who has spoke of the possibilities of softening the penalties for pot-smoking.

The Beatle was asked if he had sworn off drugs. He replied he hadn’t sworn off anything, but added that he keeps clear of “anything that interferes with my health or mental well-being.”

Asked whether this included marijuana, he replied: “No, not for me.” He made it clear, however, he was not advocating drug use for others.

Though the couple refused to be pinned down on exactly what they had discussed with the prime minister, Lennon said he was convinced Mr. Trudeau is “a beautiful person.”

Lennon said they wanted to discuss the “health aspects” of next summer’s big Mosport peace festival with the health minister.

Asked what possible interest such a peace rally could be to the Canadian health minister, Beatle Lennon replied: “To keep the festival healthy, man.”

Similar festivals, held during the last year in both the United States and England, ; have created problems for organizers, among them treating teenagers who have freaked out on drugs.

Lennon said Mr. Trudeau was the first major politician he and his wife have met personally since they launched their international “crusade for peace.”

TORONTO (CP) – John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono, planning a peace festival at Mosport Park northeast of here in July, plan to ask his fellow Beatles and “everyone who’s anyone” to entertain.

Lennon and Ono arrived here Tuesday night for a week-long stay, and held a news conference Wednesday.

Lennon said he feels about peace the way he felt about the Beatles a few years ago. “We’re not going to give up because some other people failed.”

“John and Yoko refuse to become the leader of the youth movement for peace. We’re just saying this is our flag, it’s a white flag, is anybody else in the game” he said.

He said advertising is the key to a successful peace campaign —“sell, sell, sell.”

He hopes Beatles George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney will come to Mosport, a park 30 miles from Toronto noted for Grand Prix car racing.

“ … If I can get Elvis Presley, I’l ltry.”

He and Yoko have arranged to distribute Christmas posters reading “War is Over! If yoi want it. Merry Christmas fron John and Yoko,” in 11 world cities.

They like Canada because:

. . : We like your not fighting, you’ve pulled out of NATO and all the things you do seem like good things. . . .”

Asked if he would like to meet Prime Minister Trudeau, Lennon said:

“We don’t want to hustle him you know, and pressure him. If it’s possible to talk we’d enjoy it.

MONTREAL – (UPI)

John Lennon, swinging his little “bag of laughs,” announced a Christmas Day “peace fast” with comedian Dick Gregory yesterday, and indicated there may he something to rumors that The Beatles are headed for a splitup.

Lennon was asked about the rumors at a press conference.

He hesitated before replying:

“Well, we’ll see how it works out in July. We’re going to see then about doing another album together.”

He said a new Beatles movie would be released shortly, a documentary- type film showing “how emotionally draining it is to make an album.

“In the old days Paul (McCartney) and I used to do all the writing. But now George (Harrison) is coming up with some good Stuff, and when you get three people trying to squeeze their songs on one album, it can be a real bind,” he said.

Lennon is in Canada with his wife, Yoko, promoting their peace campaign. They get “good vibrations” for peace in Canada, he said.

Lennon said that his song Give Peace A Chance was written during their “bed- in” in Toronto last July.

He said he talked with Gregory on Sunday, and they had tentative plans to stage a faki for peace together on Christmas Day but had not yet picked a place for it.

Lennon also had harsh words for the British press.

A London newspaper last week named him Clown Of The Year.

Lennon said he moved his peace campaign to Canada because of the hostile attitude of the British press.

“In England, talking to the press is like trying to tell your parents where it’s at.” he said. “They weren’t convinced of our sincerity.”

Lennon showed up with a “bag of laughs,” a fist-sized red pouch, with a tiny tape recorder inside, playing a tape of mocking laughter.

He dangled the bag in front of photographers, as it laughed at them,

“If we could get 50,000 people with these little bags, and hold them up at the people who make war I think that would be great.” Lennon said.

Prime ministerial aides were more flustered today than at any time since the 1968 election when black-hatted John Lennon and Yoko Ono called on Prime Minister Trudeau.

One reporter was selected by Press Secretary Romeo Leblanc to be permitted into the presence of the English Beatle and his wife with Mr. Trudeau.

But Mr. Leblanc’s assistant, Vic Chapman, a former professional football player, would not let the reporter in. Television cameramen and photographers were permitted entry.

Three plainclothes security guards were on hand as well as the usual Commons protective staff.

Marc Lalonde, principal secretary to the prime minister, and Gordon Robertson, clerk of the privy council, cut short a conference with Mr. Trudeau and left his office just before the long-robed visitors arrived.

Mr. Lennon had twice asked for an audience with Mr. Trudeau and made it on the second .attempt. He arrived here at 2 a.m. to prepare for the 11 a.m. meeting, which lasted some 30 minutes.

Imagine a hot, crowded press conference, with some of Canada’s top journalists taking part.

They’re out to grill Beatle John Lennon on his plans to sell world peace; to find out whether Lennon and his followers are really out for personal gain in the peace campaign.

More than 50 journalists, half a dozen TV cameras, a score of tape recorders and a multitude of microphones are crammed into the Ontario Science Centre lecture room.

Spot lamps overheat the room and the reporters. The atmosphere is tense and expectant.

The room goes quiet as Lennon enters, looking more like a latter day saint than a leader of the new generation.

Lennon, all in black, his hair the way Jesus wore it, is relaxed and affable. Soon the more reactionary journalists are asking pointed questions about personal profit motives and exploitation of the peace thing.

He says the performers in next summer’s peace festival will be paid, and he doesn’t know whether he will be. Someone demands to know the cost of it all.

Lennon: “No matter how much it costs, it is cheaper than somebody’s life.” Score Lennon one, cynics nothing.

“There will be no fiddling,” says Lennon. “We know you fellows will be watching like mad to see if anything happens.” Laughter. Lennon makes it 2-0.

The reporters are warming to an honest man. The questioning takes on a more friendly manner.

A TV Journalist sitting behind me has been noisy and boorish throughout the conference, asking his colleague (so everyone can hear): “Tell me, do these long- hairs view me with as much distaste as I view them?” Things like that. It makes you sick.

He stands up, interrupts another questioner to demand of Lennon: “Do you believe in God?”

There is silence. The question is fair enough, but the harshness of his tone causes embarrassment.

Lennon replies simply: “I believe in God, as a supreme power. He is neither good nor bad, wrong nor right, black nor white. You do what you want with him.”

“God is like electricity. You can kill people with it, or light up a room with it.”

“God is what you make of him. God is.”

The tasteless reporter sits down, deflated. The silence now is a respectful one, and it’s game, set and match to Lennon.

And when Lennon is asked whether there will be a car race at the Mosport festival, and replies: “There’s no car race. The race is for peace,” the journalists break into spontaneous applause.

And journalists never, never applaud in the course of duty.

“Peace is no violence , and everybody grooving, if you don’t mind the word.”

With typical dry humor, John Lennon summed up the ideal that he and wife Yoko Qio are working for all over the world.

The long-haired Beatle kicked off his campaign for world peace last week in Don Mills with a press conference at the Ontario Science Centre.

Dressed all in black, Lennon and Yoko announced a “peace festival” for Mosport Park July 3, 4 and 5.

“We don’t want to set up a holocaust, you know. It will be peace, poetry or whatever. We’ll ask everyone we know to take part.”

Lennon said Canada had been chosen to start the campaign “because we feel there’s a bit of hope here.

“Canada’s vibes are good. We like Canada, we like your image. We like the things you do. You talk to China.”

He hoped the festival would be “such a good scene that we could take it to Russia and around the world.”

Lennon said young people should use the established media to promote their beliefs.

“Our hope is with youth. They will be the establishment. There’s no point in breaking it down because you’ll have to build it up again.”

Asked why he was using a new method to achieve peace when others had failed, Lennon said: “That’s like saying why bother going on with Christianity when Jesus got killed.”

Lennon gave an example of what he hoped to achieve when he said: “If there is another Hitler in the world, we hope this time someone will see him and stop him. Youth will be watching.”

Lennon said he felt the same about peace as he did when the Beatles started in Liverpool’s Cavern.

“I don’t care how long it takes to achieve peace. No matter how much it costs, we feel it is cheaper than somebody’s life.”

Yoko said part of the couple’s aim was to “make violent people feel ashamed of their violence.”

MONTREAL (UPI) —John Lennon announced a Christmas-day “peace fast” with American comedian Dick Gregory yesterday, and indicated there may be something to the rumors the Beatles are headed for a split-up.

Lennon was asked about the rumors at a press conference.

He hesitated before replying:

“Well, we’ll see how it works out in July. We’re going to see then about doing another album together.”

He said a new Beatles movie would be released shortly, a documentary-type film showing “how emotionally draining it is to make an album.”

Lennon is in Canada with his wife, Yoko Ono, promoting their peace campaign. He hasn’t said where the fast will be held.

Times News Services

OTTAWA — The much-vaunted charisma of Prime Minister Trudeau has even touched Beatle John Lennon.

“I think he’s a beautiful person,” Lennon said, standing’outside Trudeau’s office today after he and his wife Yoko finished an hour-long chat with the prime minister.

“lf all politicians were like Trudeau, there would be world peace,” he said. ‘‘You don’t know how lucky you are in Canada.”

The long-haired, bearded, black-cloaked British pop singer is in Canada on a Christmas mission to promote peace.

Beatle John Lennon does himself a disservice when he refers (as he did in a recent interview in this country) to the United States as “the other place.”

“You mean the other place?” he said in answer to a question. The sarcasm in his voice was evident, but Lennon should not forget he owes much of his wealth to the United States. In fact the main factor in his being awarded the MBE by the Queen (he sent it back recently as a protest against Britain’s supply of arms to Nigeria) was his dollar contribution to Britain’s coffers.

Now he has compounded this impertinence by sending the bill for- his full-page “peace” advertisement in The New York Times to President Nixon, saying it costs less than the life of one man.

Lennon says he is also placing the advertisement in newspapers in other capitals. It reads: “War is Over — If You Want It.” He did not say which capitals, or whether he is including for example Moscow, Peking or Hanoi.

Such calls to peace? are useless if they do not include the Communist world which is playing a major part in keeping the hostilities in Vietnam going. The current build-up of North Vietnamese forces for a possible new offensive in the new year is a case in point.

The trouble is, Lennon likely has never been heard of in the Communist world — until now that is. He will get all the support he needs from that quarter if he persists with this campaign. What he will not obtain, we suspect, is permission to place the same advertisement in the Communist press — even if he wants that.