'Cliffe House Mother to Publish Book for Children About Africa

A children's book by Mrs. Margaret C. Hubbard, house mother of Holmes Hall, will be published Monday. The book, Boss Chombale, is based on Mrs. Hubbard's nine years of personal experience in Africa as a U.S. diplomat, a journalist, and a captor of wild animals, and is intended for children from 10 to 14.

The Radcliffe head resident began the book during her fifth and most recent trip to the Dark Continent in 1952, when she wrote political analyses for the Christian Science Monitor and the Atlantic Monthly.

On her first trip to Africa just after graduation from Vassar, Mrs. Hubbard accompanied her husband, a geologist. Instead of mining asbestos as planned, they spent three years in Northern Rhodesia and Portuguese North Africa capturing animals for zoos.

During much of that time Mrs. Hubbard, who thinks Africa "don't half as dangerous as civilization," lived with the natives in the bush country, often more than 100 miles from any white settlement.

Mrs. Hubbard then returned twice to help produce Paramount's film "Gold" and Warner Brothers' "Adventures in Africa." The latter was filmed in the Kafue Flats of Northern Rhodesia, which is also the setting of her new book.

After working as an economic analyst for the Intelligence Department during World War II, she served from 1945 to 1946 as vice-consul to the Union of South Africa. Mrs. Hubbard, now in her second year as Holmes' house mother, said she hopes to return to Africa soon, but that her next trip would be "just for pleasure, to see all my friends there."

The title of Mrs. Hubbard's book, Boss Chombale, is the nickname that the natives gave to one of Mrs. Hubbard's sons when the family lived in Africa, the author explained. In the native dialect, the name means "one who has the qualities of a magistrate," the author said.

Although this is her first attempt at children's fiction, she is the author of African Gamble and No One to Blame, both adventure stories. Boss Chombale is published by Thomas Y. Crowell Company, in New York.