Maybe the papers of the time wouldn't be interested in printing it.
The Russian Royal family had just been murdered and there fears of revolution in Britain so I can see newspapers suppressing anything that would bring down part of the British aristocracy - especially since the source was an Irish servant.
What could any newspaper safely say anyway? He died of natural causes and was found in his own room.
What I find odd is that Sir R does his own dirty work. Didn't they suggest that he'd personally negotiated and paid off Mrs Bates only to suppress the story? Or am I imagining that?
Far more likely would be him instructing his henchmen in the newsroom to ignore her and then persuading the fellow press barons at his club to do the same. I don't imagine it would take much arm-twisting.
Mary would still have been ruined though. Mrs Bates would only have to tell a few staff at selected grand houses and stand back. But that's how she got the story in the first place.
Very unconvincing, JF.