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HTML is good for debugging, but is unsuitable for application use.
Specify the format parameter to change the output format.
To see the non HTML representation of the XML format, set format=xml.
See the complete documentation, or API help for more information. 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<api>
  <query-continue>
    <links gplcontinue="1|0|Ethel_MacDonald" />
  </query-continue>
  <query>
    <pages>
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      <page pageid="40" ns="0" title="A Public Nuisance" contentmodel="wikitext" pagelanguage="en" touched="2018-02-26T16:19:49Z" lastrevid="53" counter="9275" length="25613" />
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      <page pageid="49" ns="0" title="Charlie and Molly Baird" contentmodel="wikitext" pagelanguage="en" touched="2018-02-28T17:58:43Z" lastrevid="66" counter="3739" length="5283" new="" />
      <page pageid="37" ns="0" title="Clydeside Apprentices&#039; Strike 1937" contentmodel="wikitext" pagelanguage="en" touched="2018-02-26T16:11:37Z" lastrevid="47" counter="3490" length="7082" new="" />
      <page pageid="39" ns="0" title="Clydeside Apprentices Strike 1952" contentmodel="wikitext" pagelanguage="en" touched="2018-02-26T16:13:53Z" lastrevid="49" counter="3997" length="12728" new="" />
      <page pageid="41" ns="0" title="Counter Information" contentmodel="wikitext" pagelanguage="en" touched="2018-02-26T16:23:14Z" lastrevid="54" counter="3850" length="4760" new="" />
      <page pageid="17" ns="0" title="David Carruthers" contentmodel="wikitext" pagelanguage="en" touched="2018-02-24T16:47:58Z" lastrevid="26" counter="4428" length="2272" new="" />
    </pages>
  </query>
</api>