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Alexander Rud Mills
Alexander Rud Mills (15 July 1885 – 8 April 1964) was an Australian barrister and writer, interned in 1942 for his Nazi sympathies and fascist beliefs. He was also a prominent Odinist, one of the earliest proponents of the rebirth of Germanic Neopaganism in the 20th century, and an anti-Semite. He founded the First Anglecyn Church of Odin in Melbourne in 1936. He published under his own name and the pen-names "Tasman Forth" and "Justinian".
Mills was born on 18 July 1885 in Forth, Tasmania. He was the son of Annie Elizabeth (née Vertigan) and Alexander Rudd Mills; his father was a farmer. His sister Patience married Senator Herbert Hays.
Mills received his secondary education at Devonport, Tasmania. He financed his further education by working as a labourer in Western Australia for a period. He applied to join the AIF during World War I at which time he was living at Sea Lake. He was rejected on medical grounds. His soldier's reject badge was No. 65039.[citation needed] Mills eventually moved to Victoria to enrol at Melbourne University Law School. From 1914 to 1915 he worked as a schoolteacher at Haileybury College in Brighton.[better source needed] One of his law school classmates was future prime minister Robert Menzies. Mills graduating from the University of Melbourne in 1916. He was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1917 and subsequently practised as a solicitor.
In 1930, Mills stood for preselection as Nationalist candidate for the seat of Hawthorn. He was not successful. The following year, having little work but some money, he embarked on a trip around the world. He visited South Africa but did not like either the climate nor the 'mixed races'. He then visited Italy, Germany, Britain and the USSR. Although already reactionary in nature, he claimed to have become disillusioned with communism, which he had come to view as a form of organised thuggery, during his trip to Russia. He claimed that conditions in the USSR itself were appalling and that "Russia will cure any Communist if he goes to work there." In England, he attended meetings of Oswald Mosley's 'British Union of Fascists', and Arnold Leese's smaller and more radical 'Imperial Fascist League'. He aligned himself more closely with the Imperial Fascists and later helped to distribute Leese's newspaper, The Fascist, in Australia.
Historian of esotericism Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke characterises Mills as a "Nazi sympathiser". Mills' trip to Germany included a visit to the Brown House where, without appointment, he met Adolf Hitler "talking" (Mills would later recount) "to some of his confreres". At the 1944 Australia First enquiry, Mills claimed that Hitler had impressed him as a "kindly man" who "seemed to have the respect of his men and appeared kind to them." In Germany, Mills also met followers of General Erich Ludendorff, the famous First World War strategist and conspiracy theorist who was also, like Mills, virulently anti-Semitic.
Returning to Australia in January 1934, Mills established the Anglecyn Church of Odin. He told an undercover agent the following year that this 'religion' was a front which allowed him to pursue his dedication to fascism without fear of prosecution. In 1935, he also founded a group called the 'British Australian Racial Body'. He established two short-lived newspapers, the National Socialist and The Angle, as vehicles through which to espouse his racist, pseudo-religious and political views. At this time he maintained correspondence with officials of the British Union of Fascists. During wartime investigations into his views during the 1930s, it was established that he owned an autographed photograph of Julius Streicher, publisher of Der Stürmer. In 1941, he became associated with the anti-War, pro-Isolationist Australia First Movement and contributed to its newspaper The Publicist, which, before 1939, had described itself as being "for national socialism" and "for Aryanism; against semitism", and which was the mouthpiece for William John Miles, a leading member of the Rationalist Society.
Mills' The Odinist Religion: Overcoming Jewish Christianity was published in 1939. In that work, Mills claimed (without evidence) that Nordic races had established the ancient civilisations of Sumer, Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome, but that they had been weakened by miscegenation with other races. He was particularly affronted by the espoused Christian assumption that all humans were equal. The following year he stood as an independent for the seat of Fawkner at the 1940 federal election. He polled 2,152 votes compared to Harold Holt's 38,387 (for the United Australia Party) and Arthur Fraser's 22,558 (for the Australian Labor Party). He received the support of the Motorists' Protection League. His platform included increased pay for soldiers, additional war service homes for returned soldiers, government control of the Commonwealth Bank to "control all Australian loans and cheapen money to encourage young people to marry and rear families". He also said that "more encouragement should be given to music, art, literature and philosophy, to ensure a well-balanced national life".
Mills was the first resident of Victoria to join Australia First, though he would later claim to be only a passive member. Barbara Winter shows that, in fact, he fully supported Australia First's position, read its publications and was convinced of the idea of a widespread Jewish conspiracy; he believed, for instance, that former Australian prime minister Billy Hughes was half-Jewish and that Chiang Kai Shek was a prominent freemason and therefore in the thrall of 'Jewish Christianity'. Mills' membership of Australia First and his well-known Nazi sympathies were possibly the reason he was arrested on 7 May 1942 and detained without trial lest he aid the Japanese army which at that time seemed likely to invade Australia. Major Edward Hattam of the Commonwealth Investigation Branch later testified that he believed "Mills had views leaning somewhat toward Nazi ideology." There were claims made that during his internment he 'was prominent in openly advocating a Japanese victory.' He was interned until 17 December 1942. Bruce Muirden's The Puzzled Patriots refers to Mills' claim that he had been insulted, then bashed with a rifle, by an officer of the camp guard at Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia, though Mills did not mention this during the 1944 inquiry into Australia First. Peter Henderson, writing of Australian Nazi sympathisers of the 20th century, suggests that his Australia First association was not the reason for Mills' internment: "Mills was interned primarily for leading the Odinist cult in Victoria, as well as for receiving 'substantial sums from unknown sources' and for his links with German and British Nazi groups."
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Alexander Rud Mills
Alexander Rud Mills (15 July 1885 – 8 April 1964) was an Australian barrister and writer, interned in 1942 for his Nazi sympathies and fascist beliefs. He was also a prominent Odinist, one of the earliest proponents of the rebirth of Germanic Neopaganism in the 20th century, and an anti-Semite. He founded the First Anglecyn Church of Odin in Melbourne in 1936. He published under his own name and the pen-names "Tasman Forth" and "Justinian".
Mills was born on 18 July 1885 in Forth, Tasmania. He was the son of Annie Elizabeth (née Vertigan) and Alexander Rudd Mills; his father was a farmer. His sister Patience married Senator Herbert Hays.
Mills received his secondary education at Devonport, Tasmania. He financed his further education by working as a labourer in Western Australia for a period. He applied to join the AIF during World War I at which time he was living at Sea Lake. He was rejected on medical grounds. His soldier's reject badge was No. 65039.[citation needed] Mills eventually moved to Victoria to enrol at Melbourne University Law School. From 1914 to 1915 he worked as a schoolteacher at Haileybury College in Brighton.[better source needed] One of his law school classmates was future prime minister Robert Menzies. Mills graduating from the University of Melbourne in 1916. He was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1917 and subsequently practised as a solicitor.
In 1930, Mills stood for preselection as Nationalist candidate for the seat of Hawthorn. He was not successful. The following year, having little work but some money, he embarked on a trip around the world. He visited South Africa but did not like either the climate nor the 'mixed races'. He then visited Italy, Germany, Britain and the USSR. Although already reactionary in nature, he claimed to have become disillusioned with communism, which he had come to view as a form of organised thuggery, during his trip to Russia. He claimed that conditions in the USSR itself were appalling and that "Russia will cure any Communist if he goes to work there." In England, he attended meetings of Oswald Mosley's 'British Union of Fascists', and Arnold Leese's smaller and more radical 'Imperial Fascist League'. He aligned himself more closely with the Imperial Fascists and later helped to distribute Leese's newspaper, The Fascist, in Australia.
Historian of esotericism Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke characterises Mills as a "Nazi sympathiser". Mills' trip to Germany included a visit to the Brown House where, without appointment, he met Adolf Hitler "talking" (Mills would later recount) "to some of his confreres". At the 1944 Australia First enquiry, Mills claimed that Hitler had impressed him as a "kindly man" who "seemed to have the respect of his men and appeared kind to them." In Germany, Mills also met followers of General Erich Ludendorff, the famous First World War strategist and conspiracy theorist who was also, like Mills, virulently anti-Semitic.
Returning to Australia in January 1934, Mills established the Anglecyn Church of Odin. He told an undercover agent the following year that this 'religion' was a front which allowed him to pursue his dedication to fascism without fear of prosecution. In 1935, he also founded a group called the 'British Australian Racial Body'. He established two short-lived newspapers, the National Socialist and The Angle, as vehicles through which to espouse his racist, pseudo-religious and political views. At this time he maintained correspondence with officials of the British Union of Fascists. During wartime investigations into his views during the 1930s, it was established that he owned an autographed photograph of Julius Streicher, publisher of Der Stürmer. In 1941, he became associated with the anti-War, pro-Isolationist Australia First Movement and contributed to its newspaper The Publicist, which, before 1939, had described itself as being "for national socialism" and "for Aryanism; against semitism", and which was the mouthpiece for William John Miles, a leading member of the Rationalist Society.
Mills' The Odinist Religion: Overcoming Jewish Christianity was published in 1939. In that work, Mills claimed (without evidence) that Nordic races had established the ancient civilisations of Sumer, Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome, but that they had been weakened by miscegenation with other races. He was particularly affronted by the espoused Christian assumption that all humans were equal. The following year he stood as an independent for the seat of Fawkner at the 1940 federal election. He polled 2,152 votes compared to Harold Holt's 38,387 (for the United Australia Party) and Arthur Fraser's 22,558 (for the Australian Labor Party). He received the support of the Motorists' Protection League. His platform included increased pay for soldiers, additional war service homes for returned soldiers, government control of the Commonwealth Bank to "control all Australian loans and cheapen money to encourage young people to marry and rear families". He also said that "more encouragement should be given to music, art, literature and philosophy, to ensure a well-balanced national life".
Mills was the first resident of Victoria to join Australia First, though he would later claim to be only a passive member. Barbara Winter shows that, in fact, he fully supported Australia First's position, read its publications and was convinced of the idea of a widespread Jewish conspiracy; he believed, for instance, that former Australian prime minister Billy Hughes was half-Jewish and that Chiang Kai Shek was a prominent freemason and therefore in the thrall of 'Jewish Christianity'. Mills' membership of Australia First and his well-known Nazi sympathies were possibly the reason he was arrested on 7 May 1942 and detained without trial lest he aid the Japanese army which at that time seemed likely to invade Australia. Major Edward Hattam of the Commonwealth Investigation Branch later testified that he believed "Mills had views leaning somewhat toward Nazi ideology." There were claims made that during his internment he 'was prominent in openly advocating a Japanese victory.' He was interned until 17 December 1942. Bruce Muirden's The Puzzled Patriots refers to Mills' claim that he had been insulted, then bashed with a rifle, by an officer of the camp guard at Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia, though Mills did not mention this during the 1944 inquiry into Australia First. Peter Henderson, writing of Australian Nazi sympathisers of the 20th century, suggests that his Australia First association was not the reason for Mills' internment: "Mills was interned primarily for leading the Odinist cult in Victoria, as well as for receiving 'substantial sums from unknown sources' and for his links with German and British Nazi groups."