Records with NULL Data Excluded from Query

Hi,

I have a query like the following:

TABLE FILE PROJECTS
PRINT
PROJECT_NUMBER
WHERE PROJECT_NUMBER EQ '1234'
WHERE (STAT_CD NE '201')
END

Suppose there is one record in table PROJECTS where PROJECT_NUMBER = '1234', and STAT_CD is NULL for that record.

The above query will not qualify the record properly, ie, 0 records are returned.

But if I change the second WHERE clause to
WHERE (STAT_CD NE '201' OR STAT_CD IS MISSING)
then my query returns the record.

My question is....
Is there a global setting whereby my original query would return the record. I don't want to have to add the part 'OR STAT_CD IS MISSING' explicitly to my query.

Thanks!
Sean