 His term of office as Commander-in-Chief, India, was extended by two years in 1907.Kitchener was promoted to the highest Army rank, field marshal, on 10 September 1909 and went on a tour of Australia and New Zealand.He aspired to be Viceroy of India, but the Secretary of State for India, John Morley, was not keen and hoped to send him instead to Malta as Commander-in-Chief of British forces in the Mediterranean, even to the point of announcing the appointment in the newspapers.