Because of its strategically important position along the Ljubljana - Trst (Trieste) road and the border line running through the very settlement, Planina quickly established itself as the most important and most visited border crossing in today's Slovenia — along the Rapallo border, only the crossing over Riječina, which separated the towns of Reka and Sušak on the territory of today's Croatia, surpassed it in traffic. The importance of the border crossing was also reflected in the rise of services linked to Planina's new border-town status.
On both sides of the border crossing the catering offer grew considerably; Italian guests, as well as the financiers stationed in Planina, were particularly fond of Yugoslav tobacco, sold in above-average quantities. The Kingdom of SHS also supported the sale of tobacco to Italians, above all because of the customs duties, which also encouraged a thriving smuggling trade. The resourcefulness of the local population is exemplified by the Gostilna pri Rusu, which alongside food and its own petrol pump also offered premises to customs officers, gendarmes and financial controllers — the latter only obtained their own premises in 1940, a year before the Italian attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, in the newly built border building on the site of today's bus station, where the inscription 'carina — dogane' can still be made out.
The border crossing also witnessed numerous international incidents: in 1924, for example, the commander of the Italian financial guard, Guido Testoni, crossed the border line at night in a drunken state and roused the inhabitants by firing his weapon, in retaliation for which the Yugoslav organisation Orjuna mortally wounded an Italian financier in a shooting on the road from Unec towards the Unška koliševka. More about the border services of Yugoslavia and Italy, which oversaw the border, can be read in a separate article https://www.rapalskameja.si/nadzor-meje/
1924 — On the last day of March, the commander of the Italian border post of the financial guard in Kačja vas, Guido Testoni, in the company of five armed financiers, presented himself at the control point on the Yugoslav side of the border. From the Yugoslav gendarme corporal Franc Dobrila he demanded a reckoning with customs officer Alojzij Hrovat, who had forbidden the Italian financiers from buying meat in Planina. When Dobrila, in accordance with official procedure, directed him back to the Italian side of the border, Testoni pointed his rifle at him, and Dobrila pointed his pistol at Testoni, whereupon Testoni lowered his rifle. When five more Yugoslav financiers arrived at the scene, the Italians returned to their side of the border.
Also at the end of June, a group of Italian financiers under Testoni's leadership crossed the border and broke into a house at Planina 55, causing 1140 dinars (few months pay) of damage. When the Yugoslav financier fired a warning shot into the air, the drunken Italian financiers shot him in the leg and fled.
Also at the end of October, when there was a recruitment muster in Postojna, drunken youths from Kačja vas, disguised and without papers, crossed the border, only to be stopped by Italian gendarmes. They used anti-italian language, so the Italian gendarmes seized one of them, Ciril Abrahamsberg from Kačja vas 16, and handed him over to the district court in Logatec, where he was sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment. In the same year, the Komisariat Rakek reported to the Interior Ministry of the Kingdom of SHS on the statistics of border crossings. Planina — 7853 persons came from Italy into the Kingdom of SHS, while 8647 persons left it. The number of registered illegal crossings was 13 (three residents of the Kingdom of SHS, one Romanian, one Hungarian, one Austrian and seven from other countries). Each side expelled five persons across the border.
