Degumming involves the removal of phospholipids and other non-triglyceride materials.
According to a recent escapee from the mainland, no less than 700,000 of the youths forcibly sent to the far northwest in the last seven or eight years—since Peiping started an allout downward transfer operation—had died from overwork and exposure to bitter climate or as victims of shifting desert sand.
The escapee, a Mr. Hsia who came out early in February, said the figure was based on the reports and other data he had handled while working at the Shanghai Office of Downward Transfer Operation.
The deaths, he said, had been recorded in Inner Mongolia and the provinces of Sinkiang, Ninghsia, Kansu and Shensi. He gave no breakdown but noted that the Takla Makan desert of Sinkiang was responsible for the biggest kill.
For one thing, spoken language tends to be less subjected to prescriptive
pressures than written language, and hence is a less artificial medium of com-
munication (written language is often a kind of 'censored' version of spoken
language). …
[…] That had not his light horse by disvantageous ground / Been hinder'd […]