Scarcely 100 air miles to the northwest of Maine’s northwestern border lies the Saguenay-Chicoutimi area of the province of Quebec. This area’s current devastation by floods has captured extensive coverge in the Canadian news media. A Canada-wide relief effort has been mounted.

The readers of the Bangor Daily News have been given notice of this disaster by a very small wire service summary in the July 22 edition. Front page coverage on July 22 includes a story about a Bangor man who answers his door armed with a pistol because he doesn’t think there are enough streelights around. The July 23 front page prominently features an article, complete with color photo, about an author of children’s books. July 24, Page One, gives us the gripping drama of a lady who takes a 3,000-mile cab trip and the saga of a pig and a dog. Finally, some Page One Canadian news shows up on July 25. There we get an Associated Press story of a bill to compensate Canadians for land lost 200 years ago.

I question the priorities of the Bangor Daily News, the Maine daily serving that part of Maine closest to the Quebec floods. You have bilingual staffers, including one who lives just a stone’s throw from the Maine-Canada border. Do you call this a news-paper? John M. Pluto Van Buren