For D'Aeth, the aftermath of the war was much harder than Poole's straightforward narrative might lead us to believe. The tale of success was now countered by an ominous sense of a change in climate. Gradually the dream of reconstruction was fading before the mounting desperation of the situation that developed in Liverpool as the dark clouds of the coming Great Depression gathered over the city. It was no help to D'Aeth that his gift of foresight made all too clear to him what lay ahead. His faith in the coordination of effort as the essential key requisite for social advance had emerged from the war undimmed, indeed it had been confirmed. But the circumstances to which it must now be applied were changing dramatically.

The clue to comprehension of the turbulence of deed and thought with which D'Aeth found himself confronted as the city faced the task of post-war reconstruction lies in the fact that the centre of gravity of economic life was shifting away from the river, to London. This trend was, of course, not unique to Liverpool, but it was experienced in this city with particular intensity by reason of its dependence on trade. The consequences rocked the very foundations of the society that had grown up to serve the riverborne trade and which depended on it as the reason for its existence. There could not be a more clear-cut illustration of the vital connection between economic circumstances and the quality of life of the society associated with them. For not only did the shift draw away the financial resources on which the voluntary sector had depended but it broke the intimate relationship between economic practice and social principle upon which the daily life of the community had been founded.