In a secret paper written three days before Bloody Sunday the British Army examined ways to enforce a ban on marches, a retired major-general told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry today.
But the retired officer, who worked for the military operations branch concerned with Northern Ireland in January 1972, denied the British Army considered killing illegal marchers as a way to maintain law and order.
Under questioning from Mr Arthur Harvey QC, representing most of the bereaved families, Mr Henry Dalzell-Payne told the inquiry, sitting in London: "We were not contemplating 'disperse or we fire' - that was the last thing in the world we were going to do".
Senior officers wanted "firmer measures" to arrest hooligans, the inquiry heard.
In a paper written in anticipation the march that would trigger bad publicity for the army, Mr Dalzell-Payne wrote: "The only additional measure left for physical control is the use of firearms i.e. `disperse or we fire'.
"Inevitably it would not be the gunmen who would be killed but `innocent members of the crowd'.
"This would be a harsh and final step, tantamount to saying all else has failed and for this reason must be rejected except in extremis. It cannot, however, be ruled out".
Mr Dalzell-Payne said opening fire would been seen as a last resort in response to "our soldiers being killed at random".
In response to Mr Harvey's questions, he said: "I fear that my paper was not clear enough in some respects and was open to various interpretations, one of which you have adopted".
Mr Harvey asked him: "Would you accept it would be wholly unconscionable in a Western democratic society to shoot dead people for defying a ban on marches?" Mr Dalzell-Payne agreed.
PA