xml.dom.minidom entity reference translation

[Dale Strickland-Clark]

The XML parser in this module appears to be a bit heavy on spaces
around the entity references: < & > etc.

It is removing all of them leaving the translated characters next to
the first non-blank on either side.

E.g.

<monty> abc  def  >   xyz </monty>

gives:

abc  def>xyz

Elsewhere, spaces appear to be left intact.

Is it supposed to do this? 

Can I stop it somehow? It is a serious impediment to a good round-trip
experience. :-)
--
Dale Strickland-Clark
Riverhall Systems Ltd