The nature of the order that launched the paratroopers' operation into the Bogside on Bloody Sunday remains obscure, if indeed one was actually given, the inquiry heard when it resumed in Derry yesterday.
Mr Christopher Clarke QC, counsel for the tribunal, began an examination of the evidence regarding orders given at various levels of the British army as shown in army communications, radio messages and transcripts of evidence given to the Widgery inquiry.
He pointed out that the commander of 8th Infantry Brigade, Brig MacLellan, had categorically denied that the arrest operation was started without his authority.
This had been contended at the Widgery inquiry because no relevant order appears in the verbatim record of wireless traffic on the ordinary army network.
This was said to be because the order was relayed over a secure radio link, but Mr Clarke pointed out that there was a difference of account as to where the relevant events occurred.
Counsel said the tribunal might think it somewhat improbable that no order of any kind was given by anybody to the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment (1 Para).
Such a hypothesis would mean that the brigade log and the evidence of Brig MacLellan and Col Steele were completely false when they referred to an order.
It would also mean that the officer commanding 1 Para, Col Derek Wilford, and the company commanders had acted of their own volition, "unless Gen Ford, who was not in charge of the operation, gave orders in some fashion".
Apart from a mention in the brigade log, however, there was no surviving record of what went on on the secure radio link, said Mr Clarke, "so the evidence in this respect consists of the evidence of those who gave and received the order (if it was given) and the brigade log".
Counsel told the inquiry that, in a statement supplied to it, Gen Robert Ford, then commander of land forces, Northern Ireland, has denied putting any pressure on Brig MacLellan, who was the commander on the ground on the day.
The general has stated that he was mistaken in what he told a journalist and author, Desmond Hamill, in an interview in 1984 published in the book Pig In The Middle. In that interview, Gen Ford said he was with the company commander on the ground, "1 Para asked to send in the arrest unit, and the brigade commander held them off . . . On the secure net to MacLellan I sent a message suggesting he got a move on."
In his statement to the present inquiry, Gen Ford now says that he accepts that his mobile headquarters on Bloody Sunday was not fitted with secure radio equipment, and he states that the secure network was not used that day by him or anyone else on his behalf.
Mr Clarke also gave the inquiry some details of a new statement supplied to it by Chief Supt Frank Lagan, who was head of the RUC in Derry on the day and was in Brig MacLellan's office and operations centre at Ebrington Barracks.
His statement says that on the morning of Bloody Sunday he received a phone call from someone in NICRA (Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association) "whom I knew very well and who is now dead".
His statement continues: "The person told me that the organisers of the march had decided that the marchers would not force barrier 14 or the other barriers and that the crowd would be diverted into Rossville Street."
The statement adds that when he arrived at Brig MacLellan's offices at about 2 p.m. on Bloody Sunday he saw Brig MacLellan and Gen Ford standing next to each other. "I approached them and told them about the NICRA information. Neither Brig MacLellan nor Gen Ford responded. Gen Ford immediately turned away from me and Brig MacLellan quickly followed.
"Both men moved to room A where a number of other military officers (as well as Mr Corbett, Assistant Chief Constable for this area) had been standing around. They then all left room A via an exit in that room.
"I must say that I was very disappointed by the lack of response. I thought that they would be delighted to hear that the confrontation at the William Street barrier would be averted."
The inquiry adjourned until today, when part of a tape recording of army radio messages, made on the day by Mr James Porter, will be played to it.