src/Pure/System/isabelle_process.ML

             if is_protocol_exn exn then Exn.reraise exn
             else (Runtime.exn_system_message exn handle crash => recover crash);
       in protocol_loop () end;
 
     fun protocol () =
-     (ml_statistics ();
-      message Markup.initN [] [XML.Text (Session.welcome ())];
+     (message Markup.initN [] [XML.Text (Session.welcome ())];
+      ml_statistics ();
       protocol_loop ());
 
     val result = Exn.capture (message_context protocol) ();