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- WORLD, Page 46World NotesSCANDINAVIAA Sovereign Plea for Seals
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- Sweden's dapper King Carl XVI Gustaf has never had trouble
- ruling his own temper. But the characteristically circumspect
- monarch displayed a rare flash of royal wrath last week as he
- lashed out at Norway's Prime Minister for failing to stop the
- slaughter of baby seals in her country. Said the King: "If Gro
- Harlem Brundtland can't take care of the seal problem, how is she
- supposed to take care of the Norwegian people?"
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- King Carl Gustaf's outburst, which came during a state visit
- to New Zealand, was prompted by a hard-hitting documentary on
- Norwegian sealing that had aired the previous week on North
- European television. The footage showed hunters stabbing baby and
- adult seals with ice picks and in some instances dragging the
- animals, only half dead, back to Norwegian flaying vessels. The
- King's comments were strong stuff, considering Norway's sensitivity
- to criticism from Sweden, its onetime colonial master and its
- archrival. Said Swedish Foreign Minister Sten Andersson of the
- King, before rushing off to Norway on a fence-mending mission: "He
- must have been very angry."