Breaking from his usual custom, Leon Trotsky recently received a gathering of foreign and Mexican journalists to read to them in newly acquired but not unfluent Spanish a statement of his gratification at the announcement by the New York Investigating Committee, headed by Professor John Dewey, absolving him and his son Sedov from the charges brought against them during the recent Moscow trials. Trotsky has been chary of granting interviews lately, having been annoyed by the practice of some papers in not quoting him verbatim. This occasion, however, appeared to have pleased him so much that he was willing to waive his rule.

Nearly a year of retirement at the beautiful villa of the famous painter, Diego Rivera at Coyoacan, a residential suburb of Mexico City, seems to have agreed with Trotsky. He looks younger than his years. He has, however, lost a great deal of the fire of the former War Commissar, and, with his pince-nez and pointed grey beard, resembles a typical French professor.

The entrance to the villa is a high wooden gateway. Opposite is a wooden shack in which is stationed the police guard provided by the Mexican Government. While the interview was going on they ranged themselves, vigilant if bored, on the terrace outside the window. The villa is single-storeyed, built round three sides of a flower-filled court. There are some good stone idols, collected by Rivera. The room is bare, except for a brilliant portrait of Rivera's wife in Mexican costume, a few coloured glass balls such as are used on Christmas trees, and some bookshelves filled with much-read works, chiefly on economics and politics. Prominent is a set of "Lenin" in Russian and the volumes of the Moscow trials report, interleaved with scraps of paper.

Rivera, huge and bulky, acts as host, and his extraordinarily handsome wife moves about in a dress similar to that in the picture.

Trotsky apparently relishes his present exile. Without being luxurious, it is cultivated, comfortable and pleasing to the eye. On certain days, when the sky is that deep, clear blue, the walls of the villa seem to enclose the world, which is in fact shut out by the high door and the five guards with bayonets. Yet those who have seen the usual homes of political exiles in a world where the right of asylum is, as Trotsky himself says, growing more and more restricted cannot help thinking that there could be many worse things than going into permanent retirement at Coyoacan, the ancient Aztec 'Place of the Wolf'.

• Trotsky remained in exile in Mexico until his assassination in August 1940.